The Strike Witch of Razgriz Squadron
by DesertWriter01
Summary: Weeks after the liberation of Gallia, Yoshika disappears during a battle with a massive neuroi seemingly killed in the fight. Though a year later Yoshika returns, but not as herself, no. But as Kei Nagase... Razgriz 2. Sorry the summary is a bit crappy hopefully the story is a bit better. Pairing: Kei/Surprise. Cover image is done by C-R-Belemont on Deviantart
1. Prologue

**Prologue - An Unsuspected Attack**

 **July 1944 - Britannia**

Flight Officer Sanya V. Litvyak was flying around in her Mig-60 striker on her nightly patrol listening in for any sign of Neuroi activity through her Magic Antenna. She sighed as flew threw the night and started humming her song that was written to her by her father. That seemed so long ago since the Neuroi War started 5 years earlier. Sanya's parents had disappeared early in the war but was confident in her hope that they were still alive somewhere and that she would someday see them once again.

Less than a month ago she and the rest of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing otherwise known as the "Strike Witches" liberated the Republic of Gallia from their Neuroi oppressors. Much to the joy and jubilation of squadron's resident Gallian noble, Flight Officer Perrine Clostermann. The eleven witches of the squadron threw a huge party in the base after the battle, and all over the world, thousands upon thousands of people celebrated long into the night. All of the 501st were given a thirty-six hour liberty pass by the squadron commander, Wing Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke, who told them all just to relax but to be prepared for an attack if any should come. Even the squadron leader, Major Mio Sakamoto, attended the party despite the fact that she was confined to wheelchair due to injuries sustained earlier that May. Though the main focus of the party was Sergeant Yoshika Miyafuji.

Yoshika had joined the Strike Witches in the summer of 1943, via Mio who had scouted her out in Fuso and brought her along to Britannia aboard the IFN Akagi. Yoshika came with Mio at first to find out about what had happened to her father, after she had received a letter written by him after his death, not so that she could be recruited into the military. Though Yoshika boarded the Akagi with peaceful intentions, she was forced to adapt her ideals when the Neuroi attacked and she would now fire a gun, but not in anger or rage but for the protection of her friends.

Sanya's Magic Antenna flashed red as it detected something flying around in darkness of the night, she shook herself from her thoughts of her fellow witches and turned her attention to the sky searching for whatever it was. As she looked around she noticed a large storm had gathered off to her right.

Sanya had a suspicious and very ominous feeling about the giant wall of clouds there and she flipped the safety off of her Fliegerhammer and flew to stop and hovered, as she gazed onto the large unyielding dark gray masses. Her eyes searching for any sign of movement in the cloud cover. Then, with almost no warning a bright blood red beam shot out of the clouds and straight towards Sanya. Who panicked for a second or two before she acted quickly and threw up a blue shield that took the impact of the Neuroi beam forcing her back slightly. Sanya grimaced a little as she shouldered her massive rocket launcher and quickly ripple fired two rockets off and into the clouds. One of the missiles struck something judging by the large, ear-piercing squeal of a neuroi sounding out from the the cloud bank. The other missile though on the other hand blew away the cloud cover, that had once hidden the neuroi from Sanya's view.

The neuroi was a massive one with six panels that circled around one long hexagonal tube that connected to two counter-rotating platforms. One of the platforms had four rectangular prisms that stuck out perpendicular of the one that turned counter-clockwise. While the other was a kind of box shape that turned in the other direction. Over the thing was about a kilometer long and was covered in the typical dark grey almost black and blood red hexagonal patterns of the neuroi.

Sanya's eyes widened slightly, in horror at the sheer size of the massive neuroi. She dodged two more beams before up a shield to block a third. Sanya reached over to her ear and quickly radioed the base, and in a very uncharacteristic manner she screamed out in a very panicked. "Mayday, mayday! This is Sanya! I've been attacked by a large type neuroi! I need help immediately, over!"

* * *

Minna was up in the tower monitoring the radar screen for any activity while Sanya was out on patrol. While she was there she allow herself a moment to relax, and delved into her thoughts over the past year. Ever since Mio had come back with Miyafuji, things around the base had become more... interesting to say the least. The young girl had done wonders for the Strike Witches. First of all she managed help Lynne gain confidence in herself and her abilities, allowing her to become a valued member of the witches. Not to mention she managed to get Trude out her little funk with Chris being in a coma, who had woken up a few weeks ago, and she had helped Minna herself, finally get over Kurt's death. Though also was when she disobeyed direct orders and went to go and make contact with the nueroi. Which lead to the whole fiasco with Trevor Maloney and the Warlock and, suprisingly the destruction of the Gallian hive.

Minna shook out of her thoughts as she turned her attention bac towards the radar screen. As she was watching the radar it suddenly went out as if someone had flipped a switch and turned the thing off. Minna straightened up and frowned as she saw the light go out and walked over towards the console trying to get the screen to pop back up. She was about to reach the console when she heard the radio suddenly crackle to life as Sanya's panicked voice came through. "Mayday, mayd-...! This... Sanya!... been attacke-... nueroi!... need help... over!"

Minna stood still for a few precious moments, before her brain finally caught up with what she had heard. Sanya was being attacked and by what sounded like a nueroi over the garbled transmission. She quickly activated her Three Dimensional Space Understanding Ability and quickly zeroed in on Sanya's location. When she saw the neuroi that Sanya was fighting against she was left stunned at the sheer size of it, before she quickly turned around and slammed her palm onto the air raid siren as she quickly ran out the door and rushed to the hanger.

As she ran down Minna ran into Trude along the way. They shared no words as they bolted down the hallway. Along the way, Lynne stuck her head out of her door just as the two Karlslanders passed by and asked tiredly, "What's going on?"

They stopped short and turned around to face Lynne, while Minna answered her, "Sanya was attacked on her patrol and she needs help. Can you fly?"

Lynne just nodded her head in response before quickly tuning around and headed back into her room to throw her uniform on quickly. When she came back out the, now, group of three started to move to the hanger as quickly as they could.

"Hey! Wait up, if Sanya's in trouble then I'm coming too!" the voice of the 501st's resident Soumus ace, Eila Juutilainen, cried out. The three witches just nodded seeing how it was useless to argue with Eila, especially if it about Sanya's state of being. The four of them ran down the hallway and straight to the hanger.

* * *

Three minutes earlier, Yoshika was wandering around the base staring up at the night sky thinking of flying. She sat down at the end of the runway, swinging her legs as she thought about what had happened over the past year. From joining the army, the defeating the neuroi infected Warlock and the neuroied Akagi. Though she did not regret it at all, seeing as how she had made new friends in the 501st, such as Lynette and even Perrine and Barkhorn. Yoshika laid down and crossed her arms behind her head as her eyes stayed glued onto the sky.

The silent peace of the night was suddenly shattered by the loud and blaring noise of the bases air raid siren sounding off. Yoshika stood up quickly and turned around. Sprinting down the long runway to get to the hanger and to her striker unit.

Yoshika burst into the hanger and a quick glance around the hanger bay revealed that Barkhorn, Minna, Lynne and Eila were all in their strikers and getting ready to take off.

Barkhorn noticed Yoshika first and called out to her, "Miyafuji! Get in your striker and hurry up about it, will you! Sanya's in trouble. She ran into something big out there!"

Yoshika's eyes widened at that and she quickly ran over to her A6M3a striker unit and quickly jumped in. After feeling her magical familiars activate, she quickly turned and grabbed her modified Type 99 machine gun, and bolted down the runway alongside the other four witches.

 _Hang on Sanya. We're coming. Just hang on a little longer_ , Yoshika thought worriedly as she and the flight of five flew as fast as they could to rescue their fellow witch and friend.

* * *

Sanya was starting to panic, it had been close to five minutes since she had sent out the distress call. And there was still no sign of reinforcements yet. The neuroi was slowly circling around her, rapidly firing off shots at the night witch. However, Sanya was tiring quickly between her either dodging or blocking neuroi beams she being rapidly drained of her magical energy. It was a battle of attrition… one that Sanya was losing very, very quickly.

The neuroi stopped its massive barrage, though only for a moment, and circled around it's prey as though waiting for the perfect time to strike, but Sanya is not a cat you want to trap in a corner. She sized the opportunity and quickly fired off three more rockets before quickly diving down to the water weaving in and out trying to dodge as many beams as she plummeted down the water. Though if she had stayed for a second she would have seen her rockets strike one the six stationary panels blowing it clean off and her other two missiles strike one of the massive pylons creating a massive hole in it. It was all for naught though as the massive alien immediately started to regenerate but that was also Sanya's saving grace seeing as it allowed for her to retreat into the massive storm cloud, but the neuroi quickly finished regenerating and chased it's prey into the swirling clouds of gas.

* * *

TBC=Chapter 1 - A Witches Disappearance

 **A/N** : Whew! Prologues finally done! That took me about three hours to write.

Now for those of you who have played the ace combat series you should all recognize what the neuroi is, if not then it is basically a neuroi version of the SOLG Satellite from AC5: The Unsung War

IAlso some of the neuroi that I will have in here will super planes or weapons from the AC series, because think about it! They have some cool freaking designs in there.

Updating also might be slow for a while because I have finals week coming up for high school and I'll be travelling up to D.C. with my family for about two weeks, so I will try to updated as quick as I can for you guys. DesertWriter01 out!


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - A Witches Disappearance**

 **July 1944 - Britannia**

Yoshika was pushing her striker to limit just to keep pace with the others. The five Strike Witches were rushing towards Sanya as fast as they could, all of them praying that they weren't too late. Eila was the worst out of them. She kept on frantically looking at her tarot cards, and judging by the concerned look on her face that kept on growing she didn't like what was on them. While Yoshika and Lynne were worried they both were more calm about it than Eila was. Minna and Trude on the other didn't seem worried or at least to any other person, but Yoshika had been with the 501st long enough to be able to read both of them. The way that Minna was rubbing her thumb up against her index finger and how Trude was holding her twin MG42s as if they were the last time that she would see Chris, were clear signs that the pair were worried about Sanya.

"Hey, Eila," Yoshika called out to the girl to try and get her mind off of Sanya. "What do the cards say?"

Eila looked startled a glanced at Yoshika for a moment before she looked down at her cards again. She seemed… hesitant, to say what was on her cards. That only peaked Yoshika's interest even more. Then Eila grabbed two of her cards and flew down to Yoshika's altitude, and showed her the cards, one of cards was a giant tower that was being struck down, while the other… was death.

* * *

Sanya was frantically looking around the clouds for any sign that the massive neuroi had followed her in. She calmed down after a few seconds of searching the clouds for signs of the enemy. After calming down Sanya tried to come up with a plan to last as long as she could until reinforcements could show up or somebody noticed either the massive neuroi or the fight. She knew that the comms were somehow being interfered with, so she couldn't call for backup anytime soon. What she could do though was try to hide in the storm until then but that was also a double edged sword. If she ran out of magical energy she would fall down to ocean, 3,050 meters below and if the storm dissipated before reinforcements showed, the neuroi would be on her and she would be in trouble. Not to mention the fact that she was hiding in a storm that meant that she struck by lightning and severely injured.

While she in deep thought she didn't notice the wall of clouds start to slowly gain a darker and darker tint. All of a sudden the bright red flash of a neuroi beam tinted both Sanya's vision and the clouds as she quickly conjured up a shield to block the giant laser. As soon as the neuroi finished firing the beam, Sanya thought up a crazy plan to get away and gunned the engines of her striker and flew straight towards the massive neuroi. When she got within ten meters of one of the platforms, she quickly swung her Fliegerhammer up to her shoulder and fired a missile straight down it's throat, or the neuroi equivalent of one. She smiled when the thing screeched in surprise and pain as she flew down the long tube, dodging many retaliatory beams that were fired off of the reeling neuroi, and flew back into the cloud bank.

Then as soon as she entered back into the cloud cover she came out and into the clear air. Sanya's eyes widened as she threw herself around, and looked on in horror as the storm cloud that she had been hiding in was now behind her. In her panic to get away she had flown out of the cover of the storm and into the open night. That was lit up brilliantly by the full moon that hung above. Sanya watched in pure and utter horror as the neuroi slowly flew out of the cloud cover and helplessly watched as the red patterns of hexagons began to glow brilliantly.

 _Is this it?_ Sanya thought solemnly, as the neuroi fired off a massive barrage of blood red glowing beams, that were all aimed at one target, her. _Is this how I die? All alone, with no one around me. Put down like a helpless animal, murdered by something that's not even human in cold blood. Well I guess this is goodbye then. Goodbye, Lynne. Perrine. Major Sakamoto. Commander Minna. Barkhorn. Yoshika. Goodbye Mother, Father… Eila._ She thought sadly as she closed her eyes and was brought into a memory, that occurred a few months ago.

* * *

 **Flashback, August 1943 - Britannia**

 _Sanya was flying on a night mission with Yoshika and Eila, since a neuroi attacked Yoshika, Mio and Minna when they were coming back from a briefing on the island. While they were ten minutes into flight Yoshika told the two that was her birthday, the same day as Sanya's. Then she detected a neuroi in the area that was blocking their communications back with the base. Sanya flew straight up into the air as the neuroi fired at her destroying her right striker and leaving her hanging off of Yoshika's back in order to stay in the air once both Yoshika and Eila caught up with her. Then Sanya realized that the neuroi was after her for some reason and begged for the two witches to leave her and to get to safety, but both of them adamantly refused to leave her side. Eila took Sanya's Fliegerhammer and aimed it down at the cloud bank._

 _"But you can't see it!" Yoshika cried out as Eila turned head to look back at the two._

 _"Sanya, is going to tell me where the neuroi is hiding," Eila smirked a little bit, "after that I'll be able to predict the enemy's movements for a short term due to my magic. So I'll be fine. You are not the same as that thing, Sanya. It may be alone but you got us."_

 _Yoshika looked up at Sanya and smiled at her after Eila's little speech, but still wasn't convinced by them. Sanya still gave the directions to Eila who quickly fired off three rockets at the neuroi, but the thing still did not surface above the clouds. However it was hit pretty hard by the attack. Eila looked around right quick clearly searching for the the neuroi, "Did I miss?!"_

 _"No, it's decelerating. It's sustained heavy damage," Sanya said, "It's coming back."_

 _"Oh, no you don't!" Eila shouted before firing off two rockets both missing._

 _"You missed it!" Yoshika shouted out in fear._

 _Eila fired of another rocket while she shouted, "Damn it! Show yourself!"_

 _The rocket hit the neuroi and exploded against its hull, clearing away the clouds and giving a clear view of the neuroi. Which was a kind of stretched out diamond shape that screamed towards them at incredible speeds which Shirley could only dream of. Eila seeing this quickly switched out Sanya's Fliegerhammer with her own gun and quickly pulled down the trigger letting loose a hail of bullets on the neuroi, which continued its suicidal charge, shattering pieces of armor as it flew towards them. Sanya just watched on as Yoshika threw up a massive shield to cover them as Eila kept on firing._

 _I can't just let the fight this thing on their own can I, Sanya thought as she watched Yoshika and Eila fighting. No… no I can't, she thought with conviction as she activated her remaining striker and flew up a bit higher taking Yoshika's Type 99 and opening fire. Startling both Yoshika and Eila in the process who both looked at her for a second before turning back to the fight. Seconds later the neuroi's core was hit and alien imploded in a shower of white fragments that shot by the three at nearly the speed of sound._

 _After the neuroi fragments past by them they heard the song Sanya's father wrote for he when she was young, but it was being played by her father over the radio. She flew up and listened in to her father playing her song over the radio waves. Promising to herself that she would one day see her family again._

* * *

 **July 1944 - Britannia**

Sanya was pulled out her memory as the beams came closer and closer to her. "No…" she muttered, her voice barely a whisper, but then it rose slightly, "...no." She lifted up her head while her eyes flashed is an uncharacteristic fire burned brightly in them.

"I WILL NOT DIE HERE! NOT NOW! NOT ON THIS NIGHT!" she screamed out as she threw up her arm up and formed a shield mere seconds before the beams all slammed into her. Then as soon as the beams subsided Sanya charged straight at the neuroi, as she did Sanya opened up a small compartment that was hidden on her Fliegerhammer. When she opened it she grabbed the gun that was hidden inside of it and pulled it out. It was a Orussian PPSh-41 that came along with several drum clips that each had 71 rounds of ammunition. She grabbed one of clips and slammed it into the receiver cocking the hammer back and let go, loading the 7.62x25mm round in the barrel of the submachine gun. Sanya dodged two beams before throwing herself forward past one of the giant pylons, and turning herself around firing into the long shaft of the neuroi wasting nearly an entire clip before breaking off.

She circled around and headed towards the front of the thing, coming in for a head-on pass firing whatever was left in the clip, rolling over and performing a split-S to get away for the neuroi. When she pulled out of her turn she hit mag release on the gun and let the clip fall down into the water. Reaching behind her, she grabbed a new and quickly reloaded her submachine gun. While she reloaded she prepared to make another pass on the neuroi, but just as she was about to charge in a strange whistling sound went through air as a light no bigger than her hand slammed into one of the pylons, completely disintegrating it.

"Lynne!" Sanya breathed out a sigh of relief and spun around to see Yoshika, Lynne, and Minna all flying towards her. Sanya smiled brightly and flew over to meet up with them.

* * *

A few moments earlier, the five witches at the position where they had last heard from Sanya before they lost all contact with her. They all slowed down and put themselves into a hover as they all looked around searching for any sign of the white haired night witch. Yoshika was worried about Sanya as she scanned the skies looking for any sign of her. Then she noticed the massive storm off towards the group's right, seeing the storm Yoshika called out to Minna.

"Commander, what if Sanya decided to head over to the clouds to try and hide?" she asked calling out Minna's attention to the storm. Minna look over at the storm right quick before turning to Yoshika a small smile on her face.

"You're right, Miyafuji. She probably went into the clouds for cover. Let's go!" she shouted out as they started flying towards the storm. The five approached cautiously as the did not want to be caught by surprise by the neuroi. As they were moving to the storm the five saw a bright red flash of light that tinted the clouds a dark red.

Minna noticed the flash first and immediately reacted, "Miyafuji, Lynne with me. We're going high to get a better angle. Trude you and Eila stay down here and head towards that light. Understood?"

"Roger!" the four sounded off, although one voice was less enthusiastic than the others.

Minna nodded her head in acceptance and looked back towards Yoshika and Lynne who nodded their heads in confirmation and then she turned her attention forward again.

"Alright then, break!" Minna barked out to the flight as the three witches zoomed climbed up higher. When the trio reached about 5,000 meters they leveled off and started to look for Sanya and the neuroi, as Yoshika looked around she saw the flash of a neuroi laser firing out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head over to where she had seen the flash and saw the massive neuroi and noticed a small contrail flying around it. "Over there!" she called out.

"Good job Yoshika! Lynne hit it!" Minna said moments before Lynne's Britannian made Boys Anti-tank Rifle barked out. Launching a 14mm round down towards the huge lumbering neuroi, completely destroying one of the four massive rotating pylons.

After the round had hit, the witches flew down to meet with Sanya. As they were flying down Sanya turned around and flew as quick as she could and gave Yoshika a huge hug. Both Minna and Lynne looked at Sanya as if she was a complete stranger with raised eyebrows and Lynne's mouth fell up at the sight.

"Thank you! Thank you, guys for coming for me!" Sanya cried out as she clung to Yoshika dearly. As though that would be the last time that she would ever see her.

"Of course we came, I could never abandon my friends," Yoshika said calmly to Sanya she embraced her.

Minna cleared her throat to gain the attention of the two's attention. Sanya and Yoshika broke apart and looked a little sheepish at what they were doing. "Alright, now that you two are done. We can get back to the task at hand and blow up this neuroi so that we can get ourselves home?" she asked sounding a little bit impatient. The mentioned witches just nodded their heads in response and turned around readying themselves for a fight. When they were joined by Trude and Eila, who had flown up to meet with the four after seeing Lynne fire at the neuroi.

Eila spoke up first, "Alright, so what's the plan now Commander. We got Sanya back. How the heck are we supposed to destroy that thing?"

"She's got a point Minna, how the hell are we supposed to defeat that thing?" Trude asked as she watched the massive neuroi sit down there still regenerating its lost pylon. Even though Trude enjoyed a battle, she was not suicidal, and up against that without having a plan of attack was just asking for a quick death. The rest of the witches nodded and turned towards Minna who was deep in thought. "Alright, I got a plan. Sanya how many rockets do you have left?"

"I have about three left. Why?" she answered.

Minna nodded, and started laying out her plan, "Okay then here's the plan. Trude and I will engage the neuroi up close while Eila flies around keeping the neuroi focused on her and busy. Lynne, you stay here. You're our long range sniper support since you're gun isn't good for close combat. Sanya, you and Yoshika go mid-range and support me and Trude when you can. Also Sanya, one last thing use the PPSh, save your rockets but if you see a chance to use them, do it. Everyone understand? Good." she said before throwing her arm out, declaring in a loud voice, "Attack!"

* * *

Eila and the Karlslanders charged ahead, while Yoshika and Sanya moved up a little closer to the neuroi firing their guns pelting the massive alien with rounds chipping away bits and pieces of its armor. Then the loud whistling sound of a large bullet pierced through the air as Lynne fired off another round from her large rifle towards the enemy. Lynne's shot hit the neuroi in the long tube section of the neuroi blasting a large hole in the side as the three witches closed in. Eila started shooting at the neuroi first, pelting rounds off of the thick neuroi armor, but succeeded in getting the giant monsters attention focused on her. Allowing the two witches to get in closer to the neuroi before they themselves opened fire. Rounds from all six witches slammed away at the neuroi's armor, all of them rapidly searching for the core before they all ran out of bullets to shoot.

The fight continued on for several for minutes with the same attack pattern. Eila flew in firing grazing shots on the neuroi garnering its attention and keeping its fire concentrated on her so Minna and Trude could get with their three MG42s, wreaking havoc on the neuroi as they searched for its core. While Sanya and Yoshika were a little farther back, supporting the the three witches that were making passes over the neuroi, with their PPSh and Type 99 machine guns, respectively. Then there was Lynne in the back, who was taking careful aim at the neuroi carefully watching how much ammo she had left in both her clip and her spare clips that she had on her.

And after hundreds upon hundreds of passes on the giant neuroi were made and there was still no sign of the neuroi's core. Then Yoshika had an idea occur to her, so that they could distract the neuroi long enough to get both Mina and Trude some breathing room. "Lynne, shoot at one of the panels on the one that's rotating there in the front!"

"Roger."

The loud sound of Lynne's Boy's Anti-tank Rifle firing sounded in the air as a bright light flew through the air and slammed into the head of the neuroi, a large cloud of smoke appearing blocking the witches view. Yoshika noticed a red glow in the cloud and opened fire. Seconds later there was shattering sound and a shower of white shards fell out of the cloud as though they were snowflakes. The rest of them breathed a sigh of relief before they all noticed the same thing... the neuroi wasn't dead. The six witches stared on in blatant horror and disbelief as they watched the massive neuroi slowly glide out of the large

"Keep firing!" Trude yelled out as she threw up a shield to protect herself from a neuroi beam. Yoshika shook herself from her stupor next and shook Sanya's shoulder slightly, startling the other girl slightly, before she turned around and flew up to Lynne. When she got there Lynne was in a state of shock, her eyes glazed over as she gazed off into nothing, her hands were pale and shaking so badly that she could possibly drop her massive gun into the ocean below. Yoshika's face grew more worried as she watched Lynne for a moment before grabbing the scared girl's shoulder. Startling her so badly that she had nearly dropped her gun in fright and whipped her head to look over at Yoshika, eyes widened in fear and her breath quickened violently. The frown on Yoshika's face grew deeper at Lynne's response.

"Lynne, it's okay. You're, okay. Alright. Just take a breath and calm down. This is just like any other fight with the neuroi. So just take a deep breath and get it together, okay?" Yoshika said in a soothing voice, desperately trying to calm Lynne. It seemed to pay off however as Lynne's breathing slowed as she closed her eyes for a moment.

"I'm… I'm okay. I'm alright. Thanks Yoshika." Lynne said gratefully.

"No, problem. I was happy to-" "DAMMIT," Yoshika was about respond, interrupted by the irritated scream of Trude who couldn't even get in close to the neuroi as it fire off hundreds upon hundreds of lasers at the two Karlslanders, who were now taking the brunt of the counter-attack by the massive alien. Then Yoshika remembered how she took out the first core and turned to look at Lynne.

"Hey, Lynne. How many rounds do you have left?" she asked.

"Three in the clip and then I'm down to my last clip, why?"

Yoshika smiled slyly and turned to Lynne quickly explaining her plan to her friend .

* * *

Lynne nodded her head and flew back down to the fight with Yoshika, firing a round from rifle as the flew. Yoshika turned her head towards Lynne, who nodded in response before stopping and bringing her rifle up to bear and aimed at the front of the neuroi firing off another round at the neuroi. While Yoshika flew towards the neuroi firing her gun as she came screaming in. Pausing for a moment, Yoshika spun around and yelled out to Lynne who responded with firing the last round in her clip, before swiftly reloading.

The large round slammed into the neuroi exposing another core, which Yoshika promptly shattered with a quick burst from her machine gun. Yoshika noticed a few neuroi beams coming towards her and she quickly dived down to try and avoid the glowing blood red lasers, she managed to avoid most of the beams but had to block one or two of the as she moved back into position. Then two rapidly fired shot from Lynne's rifle and as soon as the two rounds impacted the neuroi revealing two neuroi cores, which were quickly destroyed, courtesy of Yoshika and her gun. The other four noticed the shattering of the cores and flew back towards the front to regroup.

"How is that thing not dead yet?!" Trude exclaimed seeing that the neuroi was still flying somehow with four cores destroyed. Eila was exhausted responded first with a snide remark. Which sparked up an argument between the two witches. While the six were talking and arguing amongst themselves, the neuroi had swung itself around so that its long tail faced the six. Minna was about to speak up and break up the fight before a loud ear piercing screech sounded out drawing everyone's attention to the neuroi.

The long tail of the thing was was open revealing that the was in fact a large cannon that a sickly yellowish green color glowing down the long barrel.

They all stared at the thing for a moment before Trude muttered three words that summed everyone's thoughts perfectly. "What. The. Fuck."

"EVADE, EVADE!" Minna screamed out as she shot herself straight up alongside Eila, while Sanya, Yoshika and Lynne sprinted left and Trude went right. The neuroi fired as soon as Minna shouted, a large emerald color beam, with a yellowish tint to the large laser, shot past the witches and struck the once large storm cloud behind them.

* * *

What the six witches did not notice was that when that super-charged neuroi beam hit the storm it changed something. The beam discharged into the clouds altering it, changing it. The massive clouds of pent-up energy began to crackle and flicker as the thousands and thousands of water particles that made up the large cloud of gas began to garner a green tint to them.

Then moments later the clouds of water vapor began to move, but not down, no. The droplets began to spun in an unlikely circle that began to encroach towards the center on the cloud. The storm cloud growing smaller and smaller with each passing minute.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Trude shouted in surprise on the large laser, before Yoshika called out her voice carried over the winds, "We need to knock out the last core!"

"That would great… if we could even find it! Do you even have a plan?!" Eila called back to her in annoyance.

Yoshika just nodded her head in response before answering, "Yeah I do. You, Barkhorn and Commander Minna keep it distracted. While Sanya, Lynne and I find the core and destroy it."

Eila, Trude and Minna stared at Yoshika's surprisingly good and sound plan. Minna thought it over and nodded her head before turning to look at Yoshika, "Alright, we'll follow your lead on this Miyafuji."

"Yes, ma'am!" she replied instantly, throwing up quick salute before her face turned serious. "Okay here's the plan. Eila, Barkhorn and Commander Minna fly to tail of the neuroi keeping it and that huge cannon off of me, Lynne and Sanya as we go attack the point just behind the giant pylons and try to find the last core. Any questions?"

Lynne spoke up, "Just one. What makes you think the last cores near the head?"

"Because that's where I would put it if I wanted to hide it," she said as she turned around to face the neuroi, Yoshika took in a deep breath. Sending out a silent prayer that she was not wrong before hardening her gaze before calling out one word that scattered them like flies, "Break!"

Yoshika shot down towards the neuroi firing her machine gun as she flew, both Sanya and Lynne flying in right behind her. Meanwhile Trude grouped back with Minna and Eila as they themselves dove down towards the neuroi's massive cannon all of them firing their MG42s as they charged towards the neuroi. As the got closer Lynne swung her massive gun around and placing the rifle firmly against her shoulder and fired one of her last two rounds at the base of the rotating pylons. However the three didn't get a chance to observe the damage that was done to the neuroi as it fired of a barrage of beams at them, forcing the group in closer to the neuroi. Yoshika turned back to the place where Lynne had fired at only to find that it had already regenerated over the damage. Gritting her teeth, she turned to Lynne again who had noticed and placed the barrel of the gun onto the neuroi and fired her last round point-blank into the neuroi. A large cloud of dust sprung up and blocked Yoshika and Sanya's view of Lynne, but when the dust had cleared away the pir were horrified at what they saw. The neuroi had regenerated over the Boys Anti-tank Rifle and Lynne's left hand!

"Yoshika, Sanya! I can't get my hand out! Help me, please!" she cried out as she tried to yank her hand out of the neuroi's armor. As she did her rifle began to shift and change as it turned black and it gained a hexagonal pattern to it, not unlike a neurois. Lynne, saw what happened to her gun, and turned back to her hand, panicking and frantically clawing at her hand to free it from its imprisonment. Yoshika and Sanya also turned to help Lynne. Sanya going behind Lynne and grabbing her from the waist and lifting her up, while Yoshika went down to Lynne's trapped hand and tried to pull it out. Seconds later Lynne cried out in a massive pain as if she felt she were on fire. Yoshika flinched at Lynne's loud cry and grabbed Sanya's PPSh and fired it around Lynne's hand disintegrating the neuroi skin that had entrapped it. When Yoshika freed Lynne's hand the lack of resistance cause Sanya to shoot up and away from the neuroi. Yoshika stayed for a moment and and grabbed Lynne's gun and accidentally pulling the trigger, the rifle fired out a beam not unlike a neuroi's but blue for some reason. The blue beam disintegrated the neuroi's armor and blew a hole straight through. Yoshika saw the core, right where she thought it would be, but couldn't get a shot on it as the neuroi shot at her, forcing her to evade and fly up to Sanya and Lynne. Once the three got to a safe distance away from the neuroi they stopped and turned to look at Lynne's hand and what they saw had them recoiling in surprise.

Where pale human skin had once been was now dark grey hexagons that went up to her wrist. And a small patch of red ones on both the palm and the back of her hand. The two witches looked at each other and at the unconscious Lynne in Sanya's arms. The two stared at Lynne both worried for how she was going to take the fact that one of her hands was no longer her own.

Yoshika looked at Sanya for a minute who nodded her head at in response to Yoshika's unasked question. Yoshika smiled, gave Lynne's rifle to her and spun around diving towards the neuroi and the ensuing firefight below her.

* * *

Trude fired her twin MG42s into the neuroi's armor as she flew up and down the tail. She was starting to get worried seeing as the three should have found and destroyed the last core by now. But she was still firing at a neuroi that should've shattered long a ago.

Trude was broken out of her thoughts as she heard a loud scream of defiance and rage followed by a string of gunshots behind her. She turn around and saw something she thought she would never see, Yoshika Miyafuji firing her gun in anger and her face full of rage. Trude stared on for a few seconds before she quickly turned back to firing her guns. Before she could let off a shot though, she was tapped on the shoulder by Eila, who was gesturing for Trude to fly up. She grew curious and flew alongside Eila as they met up with Minna and Miyafuji. Moments later the four were met with the last of the six witches, and Sanya was carrying an unconscious Lynne

"What happened?" Minna asked she saw Lynne's unconscious form on Sanya's back.

"Look at her hand and I'll tell you," Yoshika responded in a low voice as she looked over her friend.

The three of them looked at Lynne and they were horrified by Lynne's now neuroi left hand.

"The neuroi regenerated over her hand and her gun, it did that to her hand before we could free it. It changed her gun too. Sanya if you please" she said in a quiet voice before she turned to Sanya and give Sanya her machine gun as she grabbed Lynne's now shifted anti-tank rifle. Yoshika shouldered the massive weapon with a cold expression of her face that startled Trude as she recognized it, after all she had worn it herself after Chris had fallen into a coma.

Then Yoshika pulled the trigger, and instead of the loud retort that the massive gun was known for, it fired out and large blue beam not unlike a neuroi's. The beam streaked out and slammed into the side of the neuroi chewing a large chunk out of the side of it. The other witches stared in shock the amount of destruction down with a single shot. Yoshika turned back around and started to lay out another plan.

"Alright I have another plan. Eila, you stay here and defend Sanya and Lynne. While Barkhorn and Commander Minna go and attack the last core after I…" she seemed to pause for a moment before speaking again, "...after I use Lynne's gun and give you three a clear shot at it, I'll distract the neuroi as you two hit the core." The four witches were appalled by the plan and the began to voice out their arguments to her immediately, but they were instantly cut off and silenced by Yoshika who glared coldly at all of them. Who all, including Minna, flinched at the gaze.

"You ALL know that it has to be this way! We're low on ammo and we can't contact the base for reinforcements! Hell, even if we could it would be close to twenty minutes before they even get here!" she screamed at the four who lowered their heads as she soften her voice and expression, "I know that you're all scared. I am too. But it has to be me. Lynne's hurt and Sanya and Eila have to stay here and protect her. And you two are our best aces, you're the only ones who can get in close enough to destroy that core. So that leaves me as the distraction, and I can give you two an opening. Now let's finish this thing and go back home, alright."

Trude was moved by the little speech that Yoshika gave out, she was trying to quell any remarks about her risking herself but she did more than that she calmed them down she had motivated and inspired the others to finish this fight. There were nods all around as Yoshika faced the neuroi and readied herself for the final charge at the neuroi. Taking in a deep breath Yoshika turned her head and glanced over towards Sanya and cleared her throat. "Hey Sanya, take care of my gun. I'm going to want it back after this is over, okay?"

Sanya looked at her for a moment before nodding her head, Yoshika smiled for a few precious seconds before diving down towards the neuroi firing off a shot from Lynne's rifle as she dived at near full speed towards the neuroi. Trude watched Yoshika as she dodged many of the beams that were fired at her and blocked some of the others, as got closer and closer to the neuroi the more and more beams were fired off trying desperately to knock her out of the sky.

Trude watched on mesmerized by the younger witch's movements across the sky. It seemed is if Yoshika was not flying but more dancing throughout the night sky, as she dodged laser after laser and moved closer and closer to the neuroi. The young witch weaved in and out, pulled tight turns, and rolled over the beams. Perform complex maneuvers and incredible feats of performance as though she were something as simple as walking or breathing.

"Wow," Eila muttered over the wind and the sounds of the raging battle below as she watched Yoshika split-S down to avoid a shot from the neuroi, "that's not flying that's dancing or something close to it."

Minna, Trude and Sanya all nodded in agreement as they to watched on captivated by Yoshika's flying. Suddenly Yoshika flipped back to avoid a laser that shot past her. She stay in the flip and twisted around and fired the gun at the neuroi. The shot flew straight into the neuroi and carved out a large chunk of the neuroi, revealing the bright red glow of the last core.

"There's the core! Let's move!" Minna shouted over to Trude before they both pitched over and dived at full speed. Trude opened fire first with one of guns trailing behind her as she tried to conserve ammo by only using one gun at time. Minna on the other hand waited until the pair were close enough. Trude spared a glance over at Yoshika to see how she was doing, and saw that she was twisting and turning through the fired beams as if it were dance routine. Trude shook her head in amusement and turned back to the neuroi core, noticing that the neuroi had already regenerated over the core once again. She gritted her teeth in annoyance and turned around to call out to Yoshika.

"Hey, Miyafuji! You mind giving us that opening again?!" Yoshika's response was a mid-air turn and firing another shot at the core. Trude smiled slightly as she spun back around firing her gun as she did so. As she did though, she noticed that the neuroi's regeneration rate had slowed dramatically. Trude paid no attention though and started shooting into the neuroi, but seconds later she heard a loud shriek of surprise behind her. She spun and quickly and was quickly horrified by what she saw, and watched with wide eyes.

Yoshika had been knocked off balance by a neuroi beam and was stumbling around in the air, trying. And the neuroi's main cannon was charged up and aimed right at her. Trude quickly spun around and flew as quick as she could trying to reach Yoshika before the neuroi fired at her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sanya, minus Lynne, in screaming dive as she tried to reach Yoshika also. The two of the had their arms outstretched and reached out for Yoshika. Hands flayed out ready to grab something, anything and pull her away for danger.

But when they got close to her… the neuroi fired it's terrible cannon. A bright green beam shot out from the neuroi's tail and slammed into Yoshika.

* * *

However, unseen by both Sanya and Trude as they were blinded by the light. Yoshika had managed to throw up a shield just in time. Due to the massive power behind the laser though, Yoshika's shield broke in less than a few seconds. It managed to do its job long for Yoshika regain control and move herself out of the deadly beams direct path. The thing still landed a grazing hit on her back, shredding the back of her uniform and melting the skin on her back. Yoshika passed out from the huge amount of pain and slumped over. Falling down into the small cloud that had once been a massive storm cloud just mere moments earlier.

Second later the swirling mass of gases and mystery, along with Sergeant Yoshika Miyafuji, disappeared that night.

* * *

When the bright glare of the yellow light died away. Sanya and Trude looked on stricken with horror as they did not see the form of Yoshika sitting on the other safe and sound. They looked on in rage as they realized that the beam must have disintegrated or vaporized her.

Sanya stared at the last place that Yoshika was in, as she looked on silent tears fell from her face and fell onto the gun that she was holding, Yoshika's gun. Sanya looked down at the weapon in her hands, and being feel an unfamiliar emotion begin to build up inside of her. It built and built inside until she realized what she was feeling. Rage, she was feeling rage. Rage at Yoshika's death, rage at the neuroi and rage at herself for… for not getting to her friend in time to save her.

Sanya twisted herself and glared at neuroi with a crazed glint in the girl's eyes. She dropped the Type 99 to let it hang by her side, as she swung her Fliegerhammer and fired all three rockets simultaneously at the neuroi. The rockets impacted the neuroi blowing off it's tail and exposing the last core. Trude had turned around by that point as well and watched as Sanya picked up Yoshika's Type 99 and charged in with a loud scream of rage and defiance, fire all the way. One of the bullets struck the core and massive neuroi that had tormented them that night, and taken one of their fellow witches had, shattered and died after fifteen minutes of fighting.

There was silence as the four witches that had fought that night just stared off into the night. Something had changed in all of them that night and drew the five of them closer together as they witnessed a fellow witch die that night.

"Hey, Sanya… that your kill wasn't it," Eila said in a quiet, reserved tone, that the normally energetic witch never had before.

"No… that was Yoshika's," Sanya replied as she looked down at the Type 99 that she still held in her hands. The other three nodded in silent agreement to Sanya's statement.

Minna turned to the witches and looked at the long and beaten faces. "Let's go home, girls," she said before turning around and flying off.

The five flew off back, no saying a word or noticing Trude's silent tears.

* * *

TBC = Chapter 2 - A New Life for an Old Witch

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey guys sorry I am soooooooo sorry this one is so long, over 6,000 words! But I got sucked into writing and couldn't stop. I hope the you guys are loving this story and please leave a review.

Also I am thinking of writing a BSG and SG1 crossover based around the idea that Kara Thrace is Sam Carter if you guys want to read that one it will come out after I get a few chapters of "TSWRS" out and then I will put up to more stories.

The next one probably will not be out for a few weeks because I will be in Washington D.C. and will not have an internet connection. Anyway, hope you all have a good time. DesertWriter01 out!


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - A New Life for an Old Witch**

 **July 2000 - Southern Osea**

A couple was sitting out in an open grass field relaxing with one another in the open night sky, talking about things and the future that was to come to them. The man was laying down on the grass next to the woman who was propped up against the nearby tree in the clearing.

"James, honey. It's been close to five years since the war ended do we really have to keep the… you know what. We're already trying to keep the secret from Ariana," the young woman lightly asked her husband as she leaned against the tree watching her husband as he lay there and watched the night sky. The man let out a low sigh as he spun around and looked over at his loving wife of seven years and looked her straight in the eyes. He looked her for a second before lowering his head, "I know that like having them around, Martha. But we can't exactly give them back to the military. And we can't turn them in because once they figure out who I am, I'll be arrested within days. You know that."

The woman just let out a sigh as she looked at her husband and muttered, "I know James, believe me. I know."

James turned back around and stared back up at the sky. "Care to join me," he asked with a smug grin plastered onto his face. Martha just shook her in amusement at her husband's actions before she pushed herself up and moved over towards James. Who yanked her down to the ground in laughter as the two cuddled up next to one another.

But just as the two laid down the wind picked up suddenly as a strange cloud showed up from seemingly nowhere. James and Martha stood up and watched as something seeming fell from the storm cloud and plummeted to the ground. Close to a mile away a large of dirt and dust erupted into the air as a loud thud sounded out. Martha and James looked at each other in mutual understanding and ran towards whatever had fallen down.

When the two first got onto the scene the first thing they noticed was the large trail of dirt leading towards a decent sized crater the formed in the ground. When the two looked inside they were surprised to find a young teenage girl barely four years older than their own daughter Ariana. She was all bruised and banged up as if she had recently been in a huge fight recently not to mention that the white and blue sailor uniform that she had on was torn up and dirtied on the front. Then they noticed two odd-looking machines strapped onto her legs. The machines were shaped like the old tail sections of planes from the Second World War and it seemed like she was able to fly with them, but now the two were broken and dented and probably unable to fly any more. Though the thing that the two's eyes were drawn to though was the massive rifle, lying just a few precious inches from the girl's fingertips. Martha broke out of her trance first and ran down the side of the crater to the obviously injured girl.

When Martha reached the young girl she crouched down next to her and took a look over the young teenager, she noticed that she had cuts and bruises that decorated the poor girl's skin. Then Martha reached out and grabbed the young girl's shoulder. But her hand immediately shot back when the young girl cried out in pain, arching her back sharply. And giving Martha a clear look at her burned and bloody back.

"James, get down here and help me move her! She's hurt pretty bad!" she yelled at her husband, breaking him from his state of delusion and getting him to run down the side of the small crater towards the two of them.

James slid down the rest of the way towards them as Martha tried to get the teenage girl to roll off of her back and onto her stomach. The young girl finally rolled over as James slid into a kneeling position right next to the injured teenager and quickly took off his shirt, placing it right on top of her burnt and blood-soaked back. "Jesus Christ! What kind of thing did this to her? It sure as hell wasn't natural. Not to mention how she got here," James remarked he tried to desperately stop the girl's bleeding with his shirt.

"I don't know…" Martha admitted as she watched her cringe in pain as James applied pressure onto her back, "but we need to get her to the house and call Mr. Neuman."

"Yeah, alright."

James gently rolled the girl back over and leaned down and gently snaked his hands around the young girls back and legs and gently lifted her off the ground as Martha managed to pull off the odd-looking contraptions that were on her legs. After she managed the take the things off, James stood up carefully and walked up the side of the crater. Before turning around and sprinting his way towards their two-story house up on the hill there followed closely by Martha. Martha reached the screen door of the house first and threw it open and then opened the actual front door and waited for James to enter with the girl. When he did Martha turned around and as she did she noticed a small mop of dark brown hair and hazel eyes peeking out from between the spokes of the stairs.

"Ariana! Come down here I need your help, sweetheart!" she called out to the young girl who quickly got up and walked quickly down the rest of the stairs. And quickly rounded the corner and ran into the kitchen just as James was placing the mysterious teenager on the dining room table. Ariana stared almost confusedly and looked over the young teen and noticed that she was hurt, very badly hurt. She then realized what she had to and ran off to find the phone, calling out over her shoulder that she would be calling Mr. Neuman and trying to get the old retired doctor over to the farm-house. James and Martha worked frantically together to try and stop the girl's excessive bleeding and trying, desperately, to save her life. Nearly ten minutes later the two of them heard the sound of a car pulling up into the dirt and gravel driveway. Martha looked up to James for a quick second her eyes asking a question and pleading a bit. James just glanced at his wife for a moment before saying, "Go, I can hold this."

Martha just nodded in response and quickly turned around sprinting to the front door and threw it open very quickly and ran through the now open doorway. The screen door slammed shut behind, startling and catching the attention of an older man, who had just gotten out of his old red 1970s Roadrunner and had his medical bag in his hand. Neuman Perkins, was a retired doctor and ex-military surgeon in Osean military. Though before he retired he had his favorite assignment and had taken care of the mercenary pilots during the short Belkan war five years ago. He looked up at the young woman before him and his eyes trailed down to her bloody hands. His eyes widened as he saw her hands and then sprinted up the short stairs up towards the farm-house door.

"Where is she?" he barked out as he passed Martha and burst into the door. Martha following behind him as she quickly showed the way to the dining room table.

"My God…" he muttered as he looked at the young teenagers burned and lacerated and bloody back. Neuman stared in horror and began to flash back to his time during the Second World War, before Martha gently grabbed his shoulder, bringing the aging man back into reality.

"Neuman, are you alright?" she asked the man gently.

"Yes, yes I'm fine," he responding and surged forward to the table and quickly got to work opening up his medical bag grabbing all of his tools and bandages that he would need. After making sure that he had everything he needed, he turned back to Martha gently asking her to take herself and Ariana upstairs. Martha just nodded in response and walked over to Ariana and lightly moved her over towards the stairs and up to her room while James stayed down helping Neuman with whatever he needed to do on the girl.

* * *

Martha had been sitting down on the bed slowly stroking her daughter's long brown hair as she lay there sleeping peacefully, for the past twenty minutes after she had fallen asleep in her bed. When someone knocked lightly on the bedroom door. Martha snapped up to the doorway to find her husband standing there, and it seemed that he had been there for a little while. James smiled at the sight that he had been watching for the past few minutes, his beautiful and loving wife taking care of his equally beautiful, young daughter. Martha just smiled right back before she turned her head back to Ariana's sleeping form and slowly brushed her hand through her daughter's hair once more, as James pushed himself off of the doorframe and walked over towards his family. He sat down right next to Martha and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She vaguely noticed that he didn't blood coating his hands anymore.

"How long have you been standing there?" Martha whispered quietly to him, as though to not disturb Ariana.

"I would say, 'Long enough,' but that would a bit stereotypical of me wouldn't it," he said jokingly with a charming smile on his face, causing Martha to fall into a fit of giggles and laughter at that.

"Wow! James Nagase knows big words. Has the world come to its end? Are we at the end of our runs?" she shot back with light laughter yet quiet still.

"Hey! I do know things to!" he exclaimed quietly with a mock expression of hurt on his face, causing Martha to erupt in more quiet laughter.

"Oh I love seeing you laugh, honey," James said before leaning and giving Martha a quick kiss. Silencing her.

"So, how is she?" James asked.

Martha looked down at her soundly sleeping daughter and running her hands across Ariana's head, brushing a few strands of hair away for her face before answering, "She fine. Just tried from all the excitement tonight. Not to mention she's probably in shock from seeing all of that blood. I wouldn't be surprised in she didn't wake up early tomorrow, or in the middle of the night tonight."

James just sighed and stood up, "The Doc wants to see both of us downstairs. It's about the girl." Martha just nodded her head and slowly got up off of the bed and moved towards the door, but turned around and watch as James walked over to Ariana, leaned over and placed a light kiss on her forehead. Ariana stirred slightly and moved around slightly to be more comfy in the bed, clutching the teddy bear that she had ever since she was a baby. Martha smiled at the sight as James walked towards the door. The two shut the bedroom door and started to walk down the stairs.

Once the two reached the floor they turned around and headed to Nueman who had already collected his things and was standing nearby the door. Martha looked up and into the man's tired eyes, and she was suddenly reminded that the man had seen many, many horrors in his old age. And realized that this night had more than likely brought up bad memories for the man. She didn't ask whether or not he was alright after she still had her own demons that were with her from the Belkan War and that had been five years ago. Neuman, on the other hand, had been in multiple wars and watched many friends die right in front of his eyes.

"How is she?" she asked.

"I managed to stop the bleeding and bandaged up her more immediately life-threatening wounds. It was rough a few times but, but… but she'll pull through. The only question is when she will wake up. And that's entirely up to the young miss. If only-" Neuman was about to say something, but cut himself off and gained a faraway look in his eyes. As if he thought about lost friends and past times. And a silent tear fell from his eyes.

"Hey Doc, you alright?" James asked lightly as he stood next to his wife.

Neuman looked up in surprise for a moment, his face twisted in an internal debate with himself for a few seconds, and then he lowered his head back down a second later, in what seemed to be defeat. "Yeah, yeah. I'm alright just… just thinking of some old friends. You know the last time I had seen anyone messed up that badly was back in the war near forty years ago. It brought back some… unpleasant memories." he said quietly, "Well it is time for me to head back to the old house. Good night Martha, James."

Martha was about to open up the door to let their old friend out the door when she thought about how sad Neuman seemed and shut the door suddenly. "You know how late it is actually? It's almost midnight and you must be tired right now from working on helping the girl. So why don't you stay the night? I mean I can set up a bed for you for the night and you can leave in the morning. Right _James?_ " she said as she sent a glare over towards him. Who quickly realized that if he didn't agree with her then the couch would be really warm tonight.

"Yeah, yeah, Neuman why don't you stay the night. We can have a drink and catch up on lost times." James answered quickly as he sweated a little.

"Well… well, I suppose I can stay for the night." Neuman shyly answered.

"Perfect! I'll set up the guest room up for you tonight, while you and James can stay down here and crack up a few beers for us." Martha said to Neuman as James walked over to the garage to grab the drinks. She turned around and started to head up the stairs when Neuman called her back.

"Thank you, my little bird," Neuman said lightly looking at her with grateful and glassy eyes.

Martha smiled a small simile. "Your welcome, Neuman."

The house was soon filled with the sound of laughter and good friends catching up of old times sounded throughout the night.

* * *

 **October 2000 - Southern Osea**

Yoshika opened her eyes slowly. And was greeted by the searing dawn light that had flashed through the open window, blinding her for a few seconds. The young teenager pushed herself up off of the bed that she had been lying on top of and moved over towards the open. However, she quickly regretted it as her back suddenly seemed as if it had been lit on fire. She groaned in pain as began to finally notice the bandages that had been wrapped around her chest and onto her back underneath the clothes that she had been dressed in. She took a look at what she was wearing. She wearing a light-yellow shirt that had no sleeves on it and only two straps holding up on her shoulders and an odd pair of what seemed to be a man's pants but the odd thing about them was the fact that they were seemingly cut short and hung just above her knees. Then she looked around at the room that she had been sleeping in. It was a simple room, a bed and a desk with a small bathroom and it's blue painted walls. Yoshika got off the bed slowly as to not aggravate her wounds further and limped her way towards the window. She let out a small gasp at the sight before her. The room that she was in gave her an almost perfect view of a large green field before her that had large trees dotting the field slightly before growing larger in number and merging into a large forest. Hills warped the land, rolling up and down across the horizon. And with the rising sun off in the background, turning sky the light shades of purple and blue but was completely overtaken by the bright golden light of the sun peeking out above the horizon. Though the most intriguing thing was that the trees were turning shades of yellow, red, brown and yet bits of green shown out. A clear sign that fall had arrived.

Yoshika's attention soon shifted towards a mirror that she had noticed sitting off in the corner of the room. She glanced in the mirror and was surprised by what she saw. Yoshika looked as if she was twelve years old and fifteen like she knew she was. The sound of the bedroom door opening up behind her shook her out of her thoughts. A young girl that seemed to be a good amount of years younger than Yoshika was standing in the doorway. She stared at Yoshika for a few agonizing seconds before turning around and bolting down the hallway. Calling out to her mother and father, yelling 'She's awake! She's awake!' Yoshika just quirked up an eyebrow and turned back to her reflection in the mirror.

 _How is this possible? How can I be twelve, when I was fifteen just a few… minutes… ago? How long have I been out? Where am I anyway? Am I in Britannia or am I in Gallia? And if I am not in either one then where the heck am I?_ she thought as she stared absentmindedly at the mirror. Not even noticing that the young girl had come back with her parents alongside. When she finally did turn around she was slightly surprised to see the unknown family and realized that she did not hear them come into her room, So she did the most natural thing in this situation

"Ah, you're awake, sweetie. How are you feeling," the woman, that was supposedly the young girl's mother, asked gently as if to not startle Yoshika anymore than she was. Yoshika looked at the woman with a questioning look in her eyes as she debated whether or not to trust her. The woman seemed to have noticed this and turned her head towards the tall man that she had been standing with. Yoshika managed to catch snippets of their little conversation. "James… she's scared… take Ariana and… talk with her… worry… be fine."

The man seemed conflicted for leaving the woman behind in the same bedroom as Yoshika but seemed to realize that this was not a fight that he would win easily or even at all. He let a low sigh and muttered something under his breath, which the woman apparently overheard and broke out into a small smile as the man placed his hand on the young girl's shoulder and turned her around and the two walked out of the open door closing it behind them. The woman walked over to the bed and sat down, quickly gesturing for Yoshika to come and sit down beside her. She looked at the woman as she walked around to sit down on the bed. Once she had gotten a closer look at the woman, she was surprised to notice the many similarities between the woman and herself. The same dark hair, brown color eyes and when the skin tone between the two. There was an awkward silence between the two for a few seconds before the woman took the initiative and asked first.

"What's your name? Mine name's Martha, Martha Nagase."

"Mine's, Yoshika," She replied almost timidly to Martha. Martha smiled back at Yoshika as she began to open up to Martha. Slowly, but still, it was progress.

"How long have I been…" Yoshika started but trailed off.

"'Asleep?' About three months give or take a couple of days."

Yoshika's eyes widened at that fact before she calmed down a bit and started to fire off questions at Martha, "Three months! Where am I? Britannia? Gallia? How has the war been going? Are we still losing? Have you let my squadron know where I am? How is-"

"Woah, Woah! Easy now," Martha interrupted the young girl, "I barely heard half of the thing you just asked me. So ask me again… just slower this time, okay?"

Yoshika nodded her head before turning back towards Martha. Taking a deep breath before she asked again, "Where am I? Britannia or Gallia?"

Martha looked confused, "You… you're in my home… in Southern Osea. And I have never heard of those two places before."

Now it was Yoshika's turn to be confused, she had never of Osea and could not believe that Martha had never heard of Britannia OR Gallia. After all both of them were under siege and controlled recently and both liberated earlier that year, so there was no way that Martha had not heard of either one. Seeing as how the entire world was caught up in the war and usually tuned into what was happening. _Unless… I'm not in my world… but that is a crazy idea. But it also explains A LOT of what's going on right now,_ Yoshika thought up quickly but decided to ask a few more questions before she jumped to conclusions. "I haven't heard of Osea what is it?" she decided to ask Martha, much to the woman surprise.

"Osea… Osea is one of the major countries in Strangereal."

And that tipped it for Yoshika. Once she heard the name 'Strangereal,' she knew that she wasn't home after all she lived on Earth. And that gave rise to another question how in the world did she get here. "How did I get here?" she asked quietly looking outside the window once again with a small longing expression and noticed a bunch of clouds moving in towards the house. Martha watched Yoshika with keen eyes as she looked out the window for a moment before noticing that she had a look of longing on her face. _She must have figured out smart girl,_ Martha realized with a start and she turned her head towards the floor and taking a deep breath that drew Yoshika's attention away from the window and back to her.

"Yoshika, you… you showed up after a weird… storm, I guess, showed up. Both me and my husband, James, were lying down on a hill when this huge thunderstorm showed up out of nowhere, and we saw you fall out of it. You hit the ground near us, but we stayed for a second and watched the storm just kind of dissipate just as suddenly as it showed up. After it was gone we ran straight towards you and we were surprised by what we saw. We saw you strapped into these weird machines that were strapped to your legs. We stored those in the hangar that we have after we fixed you up. I still can't get the image you, a twelve-year-old little girl that hurt out my mind. Ariana, my daughter, she's five years younger than you are," Martha told her almost solemnly. Yoshika heard everything that the woman said though one thing stuck out in her mind was that Martha said that she was twelve when she knew that she was fifteen.

"Wait a minute. You said I was twelve?" Yoshika asked Martha with a look on her face that said she was clearly confused by what she had said.

"Yes, I did why?" Martha replied with a question

"Because, I'm _fifteen_ , not twelve."

Martha was bewildered by that because Neuman had come back several days later and found out that Yoshika was biologically twelve years old. Two completely different doctors had come in also saying the same thing. Yoshika was in a twelve-year-old body. She even explained to her gently of course and she took it well seeing as how Yoshika could not deny the proof that Martha had laid out. She was in another world with no idea where she was and no friends with her to help her through this and she was in her twelve-year-old body once again and she had no idea how to even get back to her world again. As the gravity of her situation finally started to land and take a hold of her, her shoulders started to shake a little bit and a small sob left her lips which did not go unnoticed to Martha.

 _That fact that she's not from here or even supposed to BE here in this place it must be crushing her, she's been ripped away from everything that she knows and loves. Her friends, her family, heck even her home. If I was her position… I would have just broken down probably and not even do anything, forget even trying to talk._ _I would've shut down by now,_ she thought quietly. Martha grasped Yoshika's small form and brought her close to herself and started to comfort her just as if she were comforting Ariana. Martha ran her hand through Yoshika's hair whispering comforting things to the poor girl as she clung to Martha crying silent cries that rose up higher and higher in pitch until Yoshika was wailing inside the small bedroom. The stayed like that until Yoshika finally fell asleep hours later from exhaustion. Martha carefully maneuvered herself out of Yoshika's arms and turned around gently placing Yoshika onto the bed. Although she did not immediately leave the sleeping girl and sat there for a few moments. She looked at Yoshika's sleeping form and reached over brushing a small loose stray of her hair that fallen covering one of Yoshika's closed eyes. Yoshika let a low snore as she laid there, bringing a small smile to Martha's face. She would never admit it to Yoshika until she was older, she grown attached to the girl in the months that she had been taking care of her up in that room. Yoshika shifted to a more comfortable position as she slept and letting out a small sigh of content once she had settled and making Martha's smile a little bigger, as she was amused by Yoshika's little antics. She pushed herself off the bed and walked out of the door and headed downstairs to talk with James and Ariana about something. Something concerning Yoshika and what to do with her.

* * *

Yoshika woke up again a few hours later. She sat on the balls of her feet as she looked back out the window of the room that she had been apparently occupying for the past three months now. She sighed quietly as she gazed outside at the open field that had captivated her earlier that morning, now seemed to have a gloomy atmosphere settle over it as the clouds that she had seen earlier had rolled in and blocked out the sunlight. Yoshika looked around the She walked over towards the door of the room and opened it up walked out into the hallway. Yoshika looked down both ways, unsure on which way to go before she heard a small yet large bout of laughter coming from downstairs. Walking slowly down the hallway using the wall as support she made her way to the stairs. After Yoshika managed to reach the bottom of the stairs she followed the string of voices towards the kitchen. As she came close to the door she flattened herself back against the wall as she peeked her head around the corner. She was a little surprised to see both Martha and her husband talking with another man about a great deal younger than the two but they all looked to be good friends, the surprising thing about him though was the fact that the man was in a wheelchair. Although Martha's husband seemed to be a little bit wary of the man in the wheelchair, he even seemed to have a curious aura of regret in his eyes as he looked at him. Yoshika looked closer at the man, he would have been a tall man if he would have been able to stand up and had a kind of dark brown hair.

But Martha had noticed Yoshika peaking around the corner, "Excuse me, James. PJ. But I have to use the ladies room. I'll be back in just a little bit." She got up from the table and started to make her way over towards Yoshika. Who, in seeing Martha walking towards her, had gone up against the wall again to hide herself until Martha reached her. As soon as said person came around the corner she discretely guided Yoshika farther down the hallway and kneeled down in front of the younger girl. "How are feeling, Yoshika?" Martha asked the girl.

"Better," Yoshika replied quietly, "Though I could be better, you know… with all things considered." She looked off to the side slightly with sad eyes, a small frown forming on her face.

Martha just let out a low sigh at her and looked at Yoshika, her face slightly scrunched up in thought. She seemed to be debating something in her and after a couple of seconds one of the sides of the debate won out over the other. Martha opened her out came one question that surprised Yoshika and would change the course of her destiny forever more. From this one moment and Yoshika answer the histories of not only the world of Strangereal but Yoshika's homeworld of Earth would be forever marked in stone.

"How would you like to stay… and live here, in this house, with me and family?" she asked. Yoshika's head shot towards Martha, eyes wide and her mouth open in shock at Martha's inquiry. After all, she had not even been awake for days, months even. So Martha had no idea who or what she was like as a person. Yet, she… she offered something that no other person in their right minds EVER would do. She offered Yoshika a place inside her home. She offered her a place to stay, but not only that she offered Yoshika a place inside her family, her FAMILY. That in itself spoke bounds to Yoshika.

Martha who noticed Yoshika's stunned silence started talking again, "I know that it will not be the same as back home. I mean with your family and friends not here, but we can-Ughh." She was cut off by Yoshika throwing her small frame against Martha's and clung to her tightly. Tears started streaming down the young girl's face as she cried once again. But they were not tears of sadness that she was crying mere hours earlier but they were instead tears of joy and happiness. The two stayed like that for a few seconds and as Yoshika was crying she whispered out "Thank you. Thank you," to Martha who had just wrapped her arms around her. Martha sat there for a moment thinking of what to say before whispering two words to Yoshika, "You're welcome."

A whole new bout of tears was brought from Yoshika and as Martha glanced out the window saw something that she would say for many, many years to come. She saw a single, yet a bright ray of golden sunshine peak out through the dark clouds and shine on the fields after that moment.

* * *

 **August 2008 - Southern Osea**

A young woman walked out the doors of the ODF recruitment office and turned to head back to her 'parents' house. She sighed as she walked through the parking lot, almost dreading the conversation that she would have with the family who had taken care of her for the past eight years. James and Martha Nagase took in Yoshika when she woke up in this strange world and gave her a new life to live, as Kei Nagase their 'daughter.' After a few years had passed by, Yoshika had even asked Martha to start calling her 'Kei' all the time now, much to her surprise. When she asked Yoshika whether or not she liked her name she told her, "Well, of course, I like my name. I mean it's my only connection to my past, but it's well past time for me to let go of it… after all, it is time for me to stop dwelling on what's past and live life in the present." When Kei had told Martha that, she realized that this was not just a cover for Yoshika, but this was, in fact, a new, fresh start for the young girl. Though over time James, himself who was initially wary of her after both her arrival and quick folding into their family, began to look at Kei as if she was his own flesh and blood daughter, much like Ariana. Who had just recently turned fifteen, and had come to look up to Kei as an older sister. At first, Kei was a little apprehensive of portraying the part of a Nagase for the first year, but she later grew into the role and actually began to see James and Martha as her parents and even came to love Ariana as her little sister.

Kei smiled lightly at the thought of her younger sister who had almost immediately warmed up to her, excited at the thought of her finally having an older sister in the house. The two quickly grew to like one another as they played around and get trouble and bonded as only sisters could when Kei went through her high school years.

She walked over towards her car an old 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner the same one that Neuman had given to Kei two years after she arrived on her birthday, which had luckily correlated across the worlds that she now called home. Kei had appreciated the gift and went out and gotten the car repainted a coarse navy blue with white racing stripes down the body of the car across the top. With Nueman's approval of course and him saying that "The old girl needs a fresh start… and a new paint job." Kei had taken up responsibility for the car and keeping the thing maintained, and it was all thanks to James and Neuman teaching her how to work on both airplanes and cars, respectfully. Needless to say that she had picked up on her old friend's love for tuning up her machines… and her love for speed since being in a couple of races with her car's V8 three-hundred and thirty-five horsepower engine. And won quite a few of them.

She drove slowly through town as she looked around. Glancing at all of the shops and stores that had been open for the past years. The candy store that Kei and Ariana always hung out with each other and the arcade that she hung with her best friends. Then as she was driving down the road she heard one of her favorite songs. She quickly turned up the radio and started to sing along to it.

"Oh. Once upon a midnight dreary  
I woke with something in my head  
I couldn't escape the memory  
Of a phone call and of what you said."

"Like a game show contestant with a parting gift  
I could not believe my eyes  
When I saw through the voice of a trusted friend  
Who needs to humor me and tell me lies  
Yeah, humor me and tell me lies."

"And I'll lie too and say I don't mind  
And as we seek so shall we find  
And when you're feeling open I'll still be here  
But not without a certain degree of fear  
Of what will be of me and you  
I can still see things hopefully."

"But you!  
Why you want to give me a run-around?!  
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up?!  
When all it does is slow me down"

"And shake me and my confidence  
About a great many things  
But I've been there I can see it cower  
Like a nervous magician waiting in the wings"

"Of a bad play where the heroes are right  
And nobody thinks or expects too much  
And Hollywood's calling for the movie rights  
Singing, hey babe let's keep in touch!  
Hey baby let's keep in touch!"

"But I want more than a touch I want you to reach me  
And show me all the things no one else can see  
So what you feel becomes mine as well  
And soon if we're lucky we'd be unable to tell  
What's yours and mine, the fishing's fine  
And it doesn't have to rhyme, so don't you feed me a line"

"But you!  
Why you wanna give me a run-around?!  
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up?!  
When all it does is slow me down"

"Tra la la la la bombardier this is the pilot speaking  
And I've got some news for you  
It seems my ship still stands no matter what you drop  
And there ain't a whole lot that you can do"

"Oh sure the banner may be torn and the wind's gotten colder  
Perhaps I've grown a little cynical  
But I know no matter what the waitress brings  
I shall drink it and always be full  
Yeah, I will drink it and always be full"

"Oh I like coffee, and I like tea  
I'd like to be able to enter a final plea  
I still got this dream that you just can't shake  
I love you to the point you can no longer take"

"Well all right okay  
So be that way, I hope and pray  
That there's something left to say"

"For you, now!  
Why you wanna give me a run-around?!  
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up?!  
When all it does is slow me down"

"Oh, yeah, now!  
Why you wanna give me a run-around?!  
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up?!  
When all it does is slow me down."

Kei turned down a dirt road is the song ended and drove down it for a little while longer and soon her house showed up on the same hill that it had been for years now. She pulled up into the driveway, shutting off the engine and got out of her car and walked into her family's large two-story farm-house. She stopped at the door for a moment to collect both her thoughts and her nerves before she opened up the door and walked in. The screen door slammed behind her as she called out to, "Hey Mom! Dad! Ari! I'm back, guys!"

Then she heard a thundering of footsteps as the shadowy form of a teenager appeared at the top of the stairwell. "Kei!" Ariana shouted as she flew down the stairs and jumped into Kei, who threw her arms around Ariana and into a tight hug.

"How was work?" Ariana asked quickly and looked at Kei with big adoring eyes.

"Eh, it was alright. Mr. Damon asked me to fix up the Jackson's truck. And I fixed up their old Chevy… that and I got to fly Nueman's brother's old P-40 after I fixed it up."

"WHAT?! You got to fly Sirena?!" Ariana exclaimed with wide, amazed eyes.

"Yep," Kei answered casually and let go of Ariana who quickly spun around Kei and jumped onto her back. Slightly knocking the wind out of Kei as she wasn't ready for Ariana's sudden assault, and hunched forward as Ariana wrapped her arms around Kei's neck tightly as to not fall off, but not tight enough to completely choke her older sister.

Kei chuckled at Ariana's antics and turned her slightly to look at her, "What are you four years old?" Ariana nodded her head in response to Kei's question and her amusement. As she walked forward and into the kitchen where she spied Martha working in the kitchen working on making tonight's dinner.

"Hey, Mom," Kei said to her as she came around the corner and walked in through the door. Martha stopped cooking for a few seconds and turned towards Kei. She took in the sight of the two sisters with a smile on her face, after all, Ariana had just loved Kei to death ever since she had come into their lives. Kei set Ariana down onto the ground and turned back to Martha.

"Where's dad at? I need to talk with the two of you about something," Kei asked.

"Um, I think he's out in the hangar working on a few of the planes. He could probably use some help out there if you girls want to help him. I'm sure that he would appreciate the help. Oh, and let him know that I'm cooking his favorite tonight," Martha said to the two with a smile.

"Okay, Mom," the two sisters said at the same time before turning around and bolting out the back door and headed towards the family hangar. "Hey, Kei," Ariana called out getting her attention, Kei looked at her younger sister a questioning look on Kei's face.

"Race you!" Ariana challenged her sister before bolting off towards the hangar. Kei caught on a second later and sprinted after her younger sister, a smile lighting up her face the whole time.

"Ha, I beat you Kei!" Ariana shouted to her older sister as she reached the door to the hangar, at the same time as Kei did. Kei looked over at the younger sibling in mock surprise. "What do you mean you won? I clearly touched the door before you did," Kei calmly proclaimed, her sarcasm neatly hidden in her voice. To the outside observer, Kei was clearly setting a trap for the younger sibling, who fell right into it.

"Hey! No, you didn't! I was first you need to get your eyes checked! Beside's…" Ariana yelled animatedly at her older sister. Kei just smiled at her sibling's antics before opening the door.

"Alright, alright. You made your point, crazy. Now, are you going to go in or do I have to force you to," Kei shot to her sister, who wisely decided not to take the bait this time around and walked into the hangar. Who Kei quickly followed inside, closing the door behind her. The hanger wasn't big by any standards and was cluttered with the thousands of airplane parts and tools that you could barely see the concrete floor through them. There were not that many planes inside of the place, just the two old crop duster biplanes that the family had for the fields and an old Osean TBF Avenger that Martha's grandfather had flown in the Second World War, but there were two massive planes near the back of the hangar that were each covered those two Kei had only seen uncovered three times in all of her years of living there. The two sisters glanced around the hangar searching for their father, before Ariana got tired of looking for him and called out, "Dad! Where are you?!"

The two heard a loud bang and clatter of tools hitting the ground off near the old Avenger, followed a string of curses as James shuffled around the plane towards the two. As his face popped around the corner it was clear to the sisters that James had been working on the plane for several hours since he had grease and oil stains decorating both his face and his clothes. He looked he had banged his head on either the fuselage of the plane or on the bottom of his work bench seeing as how he was rubbing the back of his head. He looked the two sisters, who were barely containing their laughter, seeing this James gave the sisters a glare. Which set the two off into bouts of laughter, as their father just glared even harder. But even then he still had a small smile of amusement on his face. "So, did your mother send you twin devils out here to come and help me finish up work on the old plane," he asked after the two girls settled down a little bit.

"Yeah, that and she told to let you know that she's cooking your favorite tonight," Ari told him with a knowing smirk on her face. Which was clearly noticed and quickly mirrored by Kei. James' reaction was almost instantaneous, his face seemingly lit up as his hazel eyes brightened and his mouth broke out into an enormous grin.

"Grilled chicken breasts with pineapple?"

Kei answered this time, "Yep, that's it."

"God, I love that woman," he commented off handed, much to the girls amusement as they giggled at him. James realized that he had said that out loud and turned red, causing the girls to start laughing at him even more.

"If you girls are done laughing at your old man. Can you help me, now?"

"Sure, Dad," the two answered in unison.

James smiled and moved back towards the old, rusting plane. With Kei and Ariana following close behind. "So… how was work, Kei?" James asked the eldest.

"It was good, and nothing crazy happened for once…" Kei answered, "and I got fly Sirena."

"WHAT?!" Kei just laughed.

* * *

The three of them came in a half-an-hour later, all dirty and eager for dinner. Only to be turned away by Martha saying that she, "… will not feed people that will stink up the room and mess up my perfectly clean chairs. Go and take some damn showers!"

Needless to say, none of the three wanted to face the wrath of Martha and quickly sprinted to the showers. After that little fiasco, dinner went off without a hitch and Kei was currently washing up the dishes with Ariana. "Oh! Kei, didn't you have something to tell us when you got home?" Martha asked from where she was sitting at the table slowly nursing her drink, along with James. Catching both his attention and Ariana's.

"Yeah, I remember that! So what do you have to tell us Kei?" the latter inquired.

 _Ah, shit, I_ _forgot_ _about that_ _,_ Kei thought berating herself a tiny bit for forgetting. _I don't even have an idea on how I am going to tell them_ _._ "Ummm… can it wait until after Ari and I finish up with the dishes? We can talk about it in the living room then," Kei requested from her family, while internally pleading for her sister to not push the issue. Because, knowing Ariana, she would. So when she agreed to wait with Martha and James, Kei breath in a sigh of relief. _At least that gives me a couple of minutes to try and figure out something,_ Kei mused as she turned her attention back to the dishes.

A few minutes later though when everything was done and put away Kei was panicking. She had no idea on who she was going to break the news to them. _Crap! I don't have anything! Ughh… it looks like I am just to have to wing it, and hope for the best!_ Kei thought. She walked out of the kitchen and moved over to the living room. Martha had been standing up next to the couch that Ariana was sitting on and James had decided to sit down on one of the chairs in the room. And with their attention turned squarely onto Kei.

Said person shifted a little under the gazes, and took a deep breath to calm down and collect herself.

"Look, there's no easy for me to say this so I'll just say it…" Kei admitted. The trio looked at her with confused and questioning looks.

"I signed up in the Air Defense Force... and I'm going to Heierlark Air Force Base for training in about two weeks," Kei said calmly to the two adults knowing that they would probably not take the news well seeing as how their pasts with the military were. Martha's jaw dropped open slightly and she moved to sit herself down on the couch, while Ariana's eyes widened slightly, and James' closed in amusement as a small smirk sprouted for his lips. Then seconds later the mother-father pair burst out into giggles and laughter, respectfully, much to their daughters' confusion on what so funny. After they had calmed down, Martha decided to explain themselves, "That's great sweetheart, we always figured that you would have gone to the military life, seeing as how you're life was before you came here. And what we were back then in the war, it almost expected of you. So we aren't mad at you or surprised, sweetie."

James conceded in his wife statement with a nod his head. Kei let out a smile at that, the thought that her new family didn't oppose her decision to sign up into the military. After all, since that night all those years ago, Kei began to realize that the military life was in her blood now. In the year that she had been there with the 501st, she had grown to like and even love her life in the military. Kei thought all the way back to that fateful day when Mio came to her front door that day. Kei had come to realize that she was a certainly a naive kid given the fact that the world was in the middle of a war, a war that had been costing hundreds of people's lives every _week_. Kei shook herself from her thoughts as the other three watched her as if they were waiting for an answer to a question or something.

"Uhh, sis. You okay there? You kinda spaced out there," Ariana told her.

"Huh, oh. Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. Just got lost in thought. What's up?" she responded.

"That's alright, sweetie. We were just wondering how long it would be until you shipped out," their mother inquired for Kei.

"Umm, in about two weeks."

"Really, that long. When I signed up for the war it only took me two or three days to be shipped out," James remarked offhandedly from his chair.

"Well, that tends to happen when you guys have a war going on," Kei retorted much enjoyment and laughter of the others. After that laughter died away, Martha and Ariana turned to each other and started to make some schemes of what to do with Kei during her last two weeks there. Much to James' horror, and moved his hand down towards the pocket where he had kept his wallet. Silent tears falling down his face as mourned the loss of his money. Kei just leaned up against the doorframe and watched her family with a growing smile on her face. _Man, I love you guys,_ Kei thought fondly.

The next two weeks were filled with fun and laughter, but it all came to an end when they all headed to the nearest military base for Kei to leave. She left her family with tearful eyes and hugs before she turned around and boarded the transport. Heading off towards her new life as a fresh nugget in the ODF.

* * *

 **August 2008 - Heierlark AFB**

Kei woke up with a jolt when the wheels of the C-130 Hercules transport plane bounced on the pavement of the runway. She glanced around the bay of the plane and saw that several others were already awake while most of the other nugget pilots were just starting to stir from their sleep. She looked around the plane and noticed that there were two new pilots that she recognized, talking with another one that she did not know. Kei brow scrunched up a bit in confusion though as she walked over towards them, "Helen? Alex? Is that you two?"

The three looked over to Kei, and she instantly recognized as the Marcum twins. The sister duo looked over at Kei as she made her way over to them. Helen and Alex were nearly identical with one another, from their dirty blonde hair to their nearly forest green eye color, though the difference between the two were their differences in personalities. While both of them were outgoing and very proactive people, Helen was more of a leader than Alex was and Helen was more headstrong than her sister always throwing herself into fights headfirst while Alex liked to go with the flow. Also, the sisters had different tastes in music, Alex liked the older 40s and 50s rock and roll, heck she even liked to jive as she listened to it. Helen on the other hand liked to listen to some 90s alternative and all.

The three of them had met each other in middle school and had instantly become close friends with one another. Helen, the leader, her sister, the loyal second, and Kei, the brains of the outfit. They were the terrible trio all throughout high school and got good grades even to the torment and surprise of the teachers and the students at the school. They were thick as thieves, they were. Until the twins parents moved over to a different town to live in just barely a year after they all got out of school. The friends had stayed in contact with each other for about a year before they all lost touch with one another. _Now, we're back together with each other. Just like old times,_ Kei thought fondly with a smile as she made her way to them.

"Kei?! Is that you?" Helen asked as she ran towards her old friend and wrapped her in a tight hug. One which Kei eagerly returned. When the three had apart from each other they had all written letters to one another, but it was mostly Kei and Alex were always the ones to send letter between one another. However, after a few years, the friends had slowly drifted apart from one another and Kei had not heard anything from in the past two years. The two pulled themselves apart from one another and started talking about what the two had missed over the years very animatedly for a couple of minutes. Until the loud sound of Alex clearing her throat brought the two's attention back to Alex standing next to the guy. Kei and Helen broke apart and looked at Alex a little sheepishly for a moment. After a brief exchange of greetings between the pair, Kei turned towards the guy that the sisters had been talking to earlier. She thrust out her hand toward him, "Hi there, my name's Kei Nagase."

The guy looked at her outstretched palm for a quick second before taking it. "The name's Alvin. But everybody just calls me Chopper," he said. After that Kei had a feeling that the four of them where going to be close friends with each other in the many years to come.

* * *

 **September 2010 - Sand Island**

The transport plane bumped up and down the pavement as came in for a landing on the runway. Shaking all of the rookie pilots awake in the hold of the huge, lumbering C-17 Globemaster. All but a certain quartet that was all sitting together there in the hold, Kei, Helen, Chopper, and Alex. The small quartet of friends had stayed up talking amongst themselves about their first assignment and future training all throughout the long flight. During their two years at Heierlarck, the four friends had quickly figured out that while Helen was the better pilot of the four, seeing as how she could fly circles around the others, Kei was the better shot, able to pull off shots that even the most experienced pilots could not do. Although, that did not necessarily mean that Kei was not a bad pilot, no. In fact, she was one of the top five pilots in the class, with Helen in the top spot and Alex trailing in the fourth spot. Chopper had surprisingly taken the third position, given the fact that although the man tended to run his mouth off towards superiors he actually was a pretty decent pilot.

The four stopped talking with each other when they felt the massive transport roll to a stop, and quickly gather up their things before the plane's massive ramp lowered down. The four followed the ten other cadets out of the back of the plane. As they made their way outside, they were greeted by the bright shine of the tropical sun that they had not gotten in the two years at Heierlarck. Kei had to close her eyes as she walked out due to the searing light from the sun.

Then Kei noticed two men came walking to the group of nuggets. The two looked completely different from one another, while the man walking behind the other one was fairly skinny compared to the other one who seemed to be more of a beached whale rather than a person. The stopped right in front of the group the Mr. 'Beached Whale' seemed to take a breath for a second before talking. "Alright, you nuggets! I am Colonel Perrault, and your new base commander! Now then, follow Captain Hamilton here, to your quarters and drop off your crap, before you come and meet with me in the briefing room. I will hand your first assignments out there. Dismissed!" he barked out at them before turning around and walked back over towards the main building. The newly named Hamilton just let a sigh as he watched the whale walk, well more like waddled, away and turned his attention back to the new pilots.

"Sorry about that," he apologized to them, "he is usually more bark then he is bite, and you'll get used to it after a while. But as he said earlier, I am Captain Hamilton. The Joint Base Commander here. Anyways let's get you guys to your rooms." Hamilton turned around and led them through the hallways of the base towards their quarters. Stopping periodically so that other pilots could into their rooms before we stopped again. "Nagase, Kei. Marcum, Helen. You ladies are staying here get your stuff stowed away and meet up with the others in the briefing room in ten minutes. Also, you may want to get dressed in flight suits, you all have a hop today."

The two women nodded in response before turning around and making their way through the door. The room itself wasn't much, there was a pair of bunk beds tucked up against with a desk and a couch across the room. But there was a window that gave way to a pretty nice view of the runway and out towards to the ocean. The two looked at each other before a smile broke out on Kei's face. "I call top!" she called out as she shot towards the bed, seconds before Helen did.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Helen yelled at Kei as she climbed up onto the bunk. Kei just laughed it off and turned her attention to her two bags. She opened up the larger of the two bags first, inside of it were some personal belongings, stuff for her hygiene, also a couple changes of clothes and two sets of her flight suit. Kei pulled one of them out and laid it out on her bed before turning her attention to the second duffel bag. She placed her hand onto the bag and opened up slightly, giving her just enough room to pull out her disassembled .338 Magnum AWM rifle. Kei looked over the rifle for a moment before she opened the bag just a little bit farther, reaching in a pulled back the back mat that covered up a second rifle.

"What you looking at there, Kei?" Helen asked as she popped her head up above the stairs. Startling her as she jumped a little bit and frantically shut the bag. She leveled a glare at her friend as Kei quickly tried to come up with a cover story before answering.

"I was… just looking at my rifle," she said before she moved towards the edge bed, gesturing her hand towards the AWM as she moved. Helen looked at the gun for a second before turning back towards her friend. "Isn't that the rifle that you won the National Sharpshooter Competition with?"

"Yeah," Kei answered as she pulled on her flight suit, "and I've won it four years in a row by the way. Also, you may want to get yourself dressed we have to meet up with the Colonel."

Helen's eyes widened for a split second before she turned around, and ran around frantically, trying to get her own flight suit on. Kei laughed at her best friend's antics for a few seconds.

* * *

TBC = Chapter 3 - One Really, Really Bad Day

* * *

 **A/N** **:** Alrighty Yoshika is now Kei Nagase! And I'm sorry about not posting lately, I have been busy around the house and have had a small case on writer's block on certain parts in this chapter. Also for her confusion on the shorts, you guys have to remember that shorts were not around Yoshika's time.

Anyway three things. First- I will be referring Yoshika as Kei from here throughout the rest of the story, but she will still respond to her real name. Second- The Circum-Pacific War will be stretched out over a period of two years instead of a few months like in the actual game. I'll explain why later. Third- To explain why Yoshika is suddenly twelve years-old instead of fifteen is that when she passed through the portal she decreased in age by about three years is to help develop the plot a little more. Also thinking about writing a little side-story about the 501st after Yoshika's 'death' centered around Lynne and Sanya.

Plus, if any of you can name the song that I have playing then props to you! Or what Martha and James are hiding then leave a review in the comments.

And please review for Christs' sake! I am writing this story SOLO with NO Beta readers! So is it a little too much to ask for a review every once in awhile! I mean I am writing this for you guys, and I know that you all are reading this I check the stats almost daily!

Whew, now that the rant is over, this is DesertWriter01 out!


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - One Really, Really Bad Day**

 _*Warning! Certain parts of this chapter and the next few are rated M. Read at your own risk!*_

 **September 2010 - Sand Island**

Kei woke up in her bunk on the base and swung her legs off of the side and stood up stretching herself out. After a minute of stretching she jumped down and looked over at Helen who was still fast asleep in her bunk. Helen's hair was a mess all tangled up in knots and basically all over the place. Kei was watching her friend for a second when a loud snore from Helen brought a smile up to her face. Kei had to stifle a small chuckle that had threatened to escape her. After fighting down the chuckle she looked outside of her window and noticed that the sun had just started to peek out above the horizon of the ocean lighting. Even though Kei had been there at Sand Island for the past past two weeks, she knew that she would never grow old of the sunrise there.

The skies up with plethora of colors ranging from the bright yellow shade of sunlight to even the darkest shades of blue and purple. It was turning out to be quite a wonderful morning, that Kei decided to go out on a run. She turned away from the window and went to change into her workout clothes, which basically were just a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Once she was done she turned back to look Helen to see whether or not the woman had waken up, which she hadn't. Kei just turned around and closed the door behind, and after a few minutes of walking throughout the building, finally made outside. She looked around herself and noticed a few of the base personnel were out wandering around the place.

Kei closed her eyes for a few seconds, letting out a low sigh as she stood there in the morning sunlight. She turned off and started to jog around the island and eventually, she started to make her way towards the airplane hangars. Kei slowed down to a walk as she passed by one of the open hangar doors and noticed that there was a trio of F-5E Tigers sitting there in all their glory. As she looked at the beautiful pieces of machinery, Kei's little habit of her working on her machines picked up an itch, so she decided to walk in and look them over. The first thing that Kei noticed were that these Tigers weren't any of the others planes but they were numbers 023, 016, and 007. They were Alex, Helen and her own assigned planes respectively. After she had noticed that, Kei walked over towards her plane and made a quick walk around the fighter. As she walked around the plane she brushed her hand against the fuselage and Kei was brought into a memory.

* * *

 **Flashback, July 2001 - South Osea**

 _Kei had been living with the Nagase's, consciously at least, for the past few months and she had already had a massive case of culture shock with the many differences between Earth and Strangereal. The geography between the two of them were completely different, not to mention the fact that the two world's technology level between them were vastly different. This new world had color TVs that could as flat as a board, more advanced cars, better ways to communicate with one another over long distances with the use of somethings called 'satellites.' That orbited thousands of miles above the surface and bounced signals all across the world. Not to mention the fact that the people had developed phones that could fit inside of your pocket and talk to people on them that could be half-way across the world._

 _Kei picked the tattered remains of her 501st uniform, her thoughts reflecting on that night. The night that Yoshika had decided to join Martha's family, she had introduced Yoshika as her 'eldest daughter, Kei' to both PJ and James, who played it off as if she had living with them for a while after staying with her 'grandma' for awhile. Kei had to give that bit to James though as he played it off pretty well, considering he didn't know of the plan. After, that night Yoshika asked Martha why she had called her 'Kei.' Martha told her that she called her that, after her estranged younger sister. Who Martha had a falling out with before the start of the Belkan War in '95. The last thing she had heard of her sister, was that she was a mercenary pilot during the start of the Usean Continental War, which had sparked up two years after the Belkan war had ended. After she heard that little piece she gladly took on the new name._

 _"Kei, come on! We're heading to the airfield, now," James had called up from the stairwell, Kei shock herself from her thoughts as she heard his voice call out._

 _"Okay, I'll be right down," she shouted back down to him. She turned around and set down the old uniform and made her through the door, closing it behind her, and headed towards the stairs. Flying down the steps and towards the front door, Kei had been moving so quick that she had almost collided with Ariana at the bottom. She managed to spin herself out of the way so that she had barely missed Ariana. Who wasn't even fazed in the slightest bit. The four of them left out the front door and headed to James' old bright, baby blue Jeep Wagoneer he had owned the thing for at least a good thirty long years, and the engine still running like it was fresh off the assembly line. All four of them piled into the jeep and James hopped in the driver's seat, turning over the engine. "Alright, who's ready to go see an air show?" Nobody answered verbally, but James knew that everyone wanted to go._

 _The trip to the airfield itself took a good hour and a half, and by that time both of the young girls had fallen asleep in the back of the car. The airfield was so jam packed with people, Kei was mesmerized by the thousands of people that had all crowded around the airstrip as various booths and vendors had begun to sell off their things._

 _"KEI!" she heard her name being called out from behind her, drawing her attention away from the great crowds. Martha and Ariana stood a bit farther back, waving for Kei to come to them. She immediately got the message and ran over to them._

 _"Kei, I want you to stay close, okay? It's real easy to get lost around here," Martha told her. She immediately understood Martha's and nodded her head, showing that she had both understood and accepted that fact. They wandered around the airfield for a while after that, looking at older planes from Osea's long history. Before an announcer came up on the speakers and announced that the 73rd 'White Angels' Squadron would be taking off soon. The four of them hurried over to the runway get a good look at the nationally adored aerobatic OADF squadron. They managed to find open spot along the fence line that had been neglected by the other sightseers. Kei quickly spotted the large form of huge a plane with two huge holes sitting in the back of the plane. A large flat body with two tall tails, and wide sweeping wings and nearly, pure white in their color. Kei had later come to know as a F-14 Tomcat. There were six of them all moving slowly towards the runway, making sure to show off their planes._

 _Then after the six fighters had lined up on the runway the incessant whine of the engines grew in intensity as all of the plane's pilots throttled up their engines. The Tomcats screaming out to be let into the air. Then the lead plane jolted forward as its pilot released the brakes the plane slowly gaining speed as it sped down the runway, quickly followed by the other five planes. The planes lifted off, one after another as they gracefully forced their way up and into the sky. One of the planes peeled off from the others as the formed a five-ship V formation. The plane made a slow circle around and head back towards the runway. For a second there, Kei thought that he was coming back in to land but she noticed that the person wasn't even slowing down, in anything he was going faster than he was before he turned. That's when a weird cone seemingly formed around around the plane as it passed by, the hairs on Kei's arms raising up and into the air. She watched as the plane shot passed the cone still on it, suddenly a loud boom cracked through the air, startling both Kei and Ariana, followed by a loud cheer from the crowd as the other five peeled off one by one doing the same thing as the passed by. Kei flashed back into the memory of the 501st._

 _She had just been brought to the Strike Witches by Sakamoto, nearly two months earlier. The other members of the squadron had been busy with doing their own thing on the base when a neuroi had shown up. Only Shirley, Lynnette and her had been technically on duty that day and took off to intercept. Something with wrong with Shirley's striker units and she shot ahead of the group. Then few minutes later a loud boom sounded off in the distance and the neuroi was somehow destroyed seconds later._

 _Kei flashed back to the present as the six planes formed back up, and started to perform complex maneuvers, much to the enjoyment of both the crowd and Kei herself. Who stared, wide-eyed, as two Tomcats pitched themselves up and circled around each other in a tight corkscrew as they continued to climb up and up into the air. Splitting apart and pulling away from one another and looped themselves back around and onto themselves as they crossed. Passing by each other at incredible speeds. The pair formed back up with the other four as they all performed intricate and mesmerizing maneuvers as a group._

 _Kei watched in complete fascination, as two of the planes broke of from the main group and maneuvered around each other as if they had taken dancing lessons. The pair then split apart and flew a good distance away from each other before the circled back around a charged back towards each other at nearly full speed, with no sign of either slowing down or peeling away. The world seemingly began to slow down and get suddenly quiet to Kei, as she watched the planes got closer and closer. Finally when they seemed to be within a couple hundred of feet of one another, the two shifted off to their prospective lefts and passed by each other. The vertical stabilizers just barely passing by one another as the planes glided past. The world speed back as the F-14s passed one another, the crowd bursting into a roar of approval. Kei was so entranced with the show that she did not even notice Ariana standing right next to her, a similar expression plastered across her face as well._

 _Martha noticed Kei and Ariana's little starstruck looks on their faces and chuckled a little bit, drawing James' attention. As he looked at her oddly, wondering what she had been amused by. Martha noticed his confusion and leaned into to James' ear and said loud enough so the she could be heard over the loud rumble of the jet engines and the cheering of the crowd. "It looks like we got some more fliers in the family's near future," as she gestured to the two young girls. James looked over the pair of them as they avidly watched the mesmerizing acrobatics of the fighters, a small smile cracked open on his face as he wrapped his arm around his wife as he drew her in front of him. "Well," he started out, "since we have to more flyers in the family what do you say we teach 'em. Eh, 'Cipher?'"_

 _Martha just twisted around and him quick kiss before answering, "Sure, I can take Kei in the Tomcat. While you can take Ariana in the Eagle. That sound good 'Pix?'"_

 _James smiled and nodded his head as he turned his attention back towards the the angels that had been dancing across as if it they were in the middle of an intricate act at a ballet dance._

* * *

 **September 2010 - Sand Island**

Kei slipped off of memory lane and pulled her hand off the plane as she made her way around the plane and heading towards the engines. As soon as she got there, she noticed that the engines had not been touched at all by the maintenance crews. Kei let out a quiet sigh as rolled up the sleeves of jacket and reach over pulling a cart that had been full of tools towards her, the wheels clattering against the concrete. The right wheel up in the front, spazzing out every few seconds as it moved.

She maneuvered the cart around her and she crouched down to look over the engines. After she reached the plane removing panels and parts of the fuselage of the Tiger to reveal the of the twin General Electric J85-GE-21B engines that the F-5E housed. Kei took a look over the engine a let out a quiet sigh _Man, it looks like I have my work cut out for me,_ she thought to herself as she twisted around and grabbed some tools off the cart and got work. Quickly losing track of time as she tuned up her plane's engine.

"Hey! What are you doing here, Sharpshooter!?" a familiar voice startled her as she was focusing deeply on working on her plane's engine. She turned around and saw Peter 'Pops' Beagle, their old Combat Instructor out from Heierlarck AFB back in the nuggets first year, stand right behind her, his arms crossed and small smile on his face. Pops was transferred out to another unit in the middle of 2009, leaving all of the nuggets with a brand new instructor. Although, it was not like the new instructor was not an incompetent one or just an asshole, he was not as loved as Pops had been by the other rookie pilots over at Heierlarck, that had been been there since the old bird had left. Kei was over-joyed to see him again.

"Hey, Pops!" Kei shouted back, as she walked over a guy the older man a deep hug, "How have you been you old bird!"

"I've doing okay. Now, what are you doing looking at my plane?" he asked her. Kei looked at him oddly for a second before responding.

" _Your plane?_ I believe that this beautiful master-piece of machinery is mine. Thank you, very much," she said, crossing her arms and glaring slightly at the older man.

"Oh, and why is that Sharpshooter?" Pops asked, curiously.

"Because, _I'm_ the one tuning up the engines of the plane that I was assigned to, you silly old bird," Kei shot back at him. Pops just stared back at her for moment before throwing his head back, laughing a warm laugh that seemed to rattle around inside his chest.

"You got me there kiddo!" he remarked as he made his over towards Kei, rolling up the sleeves of his blue jumpsuit as he did. Kei quirked her eyebrow in a hint of confusion as he made his way over.

"Well then, let's see what we can do with this bird. Shall we?" he asked rhetorically, causing her to smile a small as she nodded her head in response. The pair of them moving back around the wing of the Tiger as they headed towards the tail, making small, light talk as they moved. Pops crouched down and looked over Kei's work, watching his expression change from one of confusion to one of slight surprise. "This is some really great work, Nagase. Who taught you do this?" Pops asked as he turned his face up to look at her.

"My dad did, he was a habit of fixing up his own planes back at home. Heck, right now he's working an old TBF Avenger that he found from the old days. Not mention I worked as a mechanic in my home town before I signed up," Kei admitted proudly with a smile, crouching down to his level as he continued to look.

"Really, where did he learn to do this? College or work, 'cause this really well done?" he inquired still looking over the engine

"No, actually he… he was pilot during the war with Belka. Picked up his skills there from working on his own fighter," Kei omitted, hesitantly.

Pops didn't talk his eyes off of the engine, but sounded intrigued, "Huh, no kidding. Where was he stationed at?"

"Valais Air Force Base," she answered promptly.

That surprised the old man, who turned around and stared at Kei with a slightly startled expression. "Isn't that where Ustio's 6th Air Division was stationed? The mercenary one, the that had the 66th," he breathed out.

Kei nodded her head, "Yep, that's the one."

Pops was a little bit surprised by that, but didn't ask anymore questions as the two mechanics/pilots turned back around to the engine that they were working on. The two of them were so invested in their work that the had barely noticed the time pass by. Bonding over their work and over the years that they had missed.

"... and we're all about ready to go to bed so all of us start stripping down to get ready for bed. So Helen does her little, 'We are the Knights of the Air!' speech. And then she's standing like she's some triumphant conqueror. When out of nowhere, Chopper bursts in through the door and starts asking for some help about the ACM exam. And, all three of us are quiet and just staring at him. Then he finally notices that we're not saying anything, and finally looks up from his paper. He turned so red I swear that not even a tomato could beat him! Then he looks over at Helen… then he does the funniest thing, he faints right then and there!" Kei exclaimed as she finished up her story. Pops burst out into laughter from his spot in the cockpit.

"It sounds like I missed a lot, when I transferred out," he remarked.

"Oh, don't even get me _started_ on the prank war that went on between the four us," Kei shot back.

That got his attention as he pulled out of the cockpit and sat down on the ladder. "Oh really, now this one I have got to hear," he said.

Kei put down her tools and twisted around to look over towards the older man. "Alright, so it all started with-"

"Attention, all Wardog Squadron pilots. Report to the briefing room. Repeat, all Wardog Squadron pilots, report to the briefing room," a voice interrupted her story.

"Well, duty calls," Kei sighed out, as she stood up and started to make her way towards the base headquarters, grabbing a spare towel off of the cart along the way. Rubbing the oil stains and grease spots off her hands and fingers. "I'll finish up the story when I get back."

"Sounds good. Oh, and good luck up there today, Sharpshooter," he told her as she walked off. Kei just turned around and nodded her head as she walked off.

* * *

Kei made her way inside the main building, dodging people as she walked down the slightly crowded hallway. Heading straight towards the base's briefing room. She turned around several corners as she made her through the corridors, finally seeing the briefing room mere moments after she turned around a corner. Kei walked up to the door, turning the knob and made her way inside with out so much as a break in her step. She looked around the room, quickly spying her three friends seated near the middle of the darkened room. The trio stuck in a light conversation. Kei made her way over towards them, quickly taking the seat next to Helen drawing their attention to her as she sat.

"Where were you, this morning? I woke up at around 0730 and noticed that you were missing," Helen started up, curious as to Kei's whereabouts.

"And, why are you all dirty?" her younger sister finished off, noticing Kei's grease and grimy clothing. Chopper and Helen just now noticing it.

"Yeah, why are you?"

"I was working with a mechanic on my plane, before I showed up. Also, I went out for a walk," she calmly answered. The other three nodded their heads amicably in confirmation, though they did not have time to ask anymore questions as the Colonel came in through the door, closely by Captain Hamilton and another unknown captain. The three of them made their way up to the front of the room

"Alright people, listen up!" the Colonel barked out quickly cutting off all of the conversations that the pilots were having. "Today Captains Bartlett and Baker, along with First Lieutenant Svenson. Will be taking some of you up for some more flight training, maybe even a mock dogfight while they're at it, over Cape Landers today. Also, you will be practicing your gunnery skills, with live ammunition." All of the rookies, Kei included, started chattering excitedly each other at the thought of the dogfight and the live ammo practice. Though although the chatter was quickly cut off as the unnamed captain, decided to chime in, quickly ending all of the murmurs and talks.

"Alright now that that's dealt with, let's go over the flight lineup. There will three fights of four. Cavalier, Star, Barney, your three are in Flight 3 with Lieutenant Svenson. Edge, Jive, Betjet, you three are flying in Flight 2, Captain Baker is in command. Now then, Flight 1 will be lead by Captain Bartlett, consisting of Aero, Mustang and Nemo. Blaze, Chopper, Matchstick… you three are on the ground for the time being, so get some rest and relax. You three are going up tomorrow, the rest of you wheels up at 10:30. Now onto the second piece of business, since this is a training flight you will only be equipped with a full load of cannon ammunition, no missiles asid of two AIM-9 Sidewinders. So, watch out for what you pilots are doing up there. We don't want anyone getting shot down out there. Good luck, dismissed!" the captain finished off, the entire room stood up and quickly saluted smartly the three up front, who quickly returned it as they made their way out of the door seconds later. The rest of pilots quickly followed their example and filed their way out the door. Helen and Chopper managed to get up first and squeeze through the crowded doorway, closely followed up by Kei and Alex. The latter two about ready to follow the main body of the squadron to the locker rooms, though Kei spotted the former pair and headed of in their direction for a second after telling Alex to go ahead to the lockers.

"Hey, Helen, Chopper," Kei called out to the duo, as they were about to break away and head towards the barracks obviously taking the option to sit back and relax, while the twelve of them would be up flying around. The two twisted around to look at their friend. Helen beat Chopper to the punch first, "Yeah, what's up, Kei?"

Kei cracked a small smirk, before answering, "Nothing much, we'll see you guys when we touch back down in a couple hours right?"

The other two cracked a similar smirk. "You can bet on it. See you guys in few hours," Chopper responded this time, raising his fist as he did. The other two quickly got the message and had a three-way fist bump. Kei turned around and started to make her way to the pilots locker rooms.

"Hey, Kei!" Helen called from behind her. Kei spun around, still moving backwards as she did.

"Yeah?"

"Try to fun will ya'."

Kei let out a smile, "You know me, I always have fun."

Helen and Chopper laughed together before they responded, "That we know," in unison, laughter still dancing the edges of their voices.

* * *

 **September 2010 - Cape Landers**

Wardog Squadron had taken off less than two hours later, and quickly formed up as they moved towards Cape Landers. The ten of the flying around in relative peace, chattering among one another, making small talk. Kei was just having a fun time looking out at the beautiful blue sky that was sitting outside her cockpit. It was peaceful, and it had reminded her of the many times that she had taken off in her mother's old F-14. After they all came back from the air show, Martha and James decided to come clean with their pasts. And the fact that they were world class aces only sweetened the deal. The two Galm Team members each trained Kei and Ariana separately with Martha taking Kei up in her personal F-14D Tomcat, while James took Ariana up with him in his 'Solo Wing' F-15C Eagle.

The beeping of the radio being for attention brought Kei out from deep within her thoughts and memories. "Gimme break! I'm babysitting nuggets up here!" the captain's voice rang out, as he responded.

"Command room to Wardog Squadron," a air controller back Sand Island answered back, "We have leakers, aircraft type unknown. Crossing the border at Cape Landers, bearing 278 to 302. Captain Bartlett, your flight is the only group close enough to make the intercept," the controller told the captain. Though Kei was panicking in her plane. _They really couldn't expect a couple of nuggets to fight in a dogfight, right?! I mean there is no way that we can fight them off,_ she wildly, hoping that she was wrong. Only for her to be disappointed seconds later.

"Baker, Sevenson, go trail and stay close. The three of us will go high and engage the bandits. All other aircraft stay low and out of the fight," Bartlett calmly ordered. _Holy shit, we're really doing this,_ she thought to herself, as she watched the other two instructors smoothly shift over to take their places on Bartlett's F-4 Phantom. She couldn't watch for much longer though as she nosed the plane over into a dive to get below where the instructors would be fighting the unknown enemy planes. Kei levelled her plane off at around 2,000 feet off the water. She quickly looked around and notice both Alex and another pilot named Adam 'Betjet' Walker, had followed her down and formed up on her left wing. With Adam on Alex's right wing and Kei was on her left. Adam and Kei had been fellow classmates back at Heierlarck and talked with one another plenty a time back during flight school. The two had become pretty close friends in the past two years. Kei yanked her head off of the two other trainees, and from her reminiscing, and started to scan the sky for any sign of the enemy planes. After spotting nothing over and cued up her mic.

"Jive. Betjet, it's Edge. You see them up there?" Kei called out over the radio.

"Negative, Edge. No joy," Alex called back. "Same here, I got nothing," Adam followed up seconds later. Kei was about to call back to but as she looked out into sky, she noticed a slight… glitter and… some black specks, out in front of her plane. She watched the specks for a few moments before she noticed something drop off of three of the dots before, trails of white smoke began to plume from underneath the specks. Then, seconds later her missile alarm screamed into her ears. Kei realized in horror, that her flight had dived directly into the path of the incoming planes.

"Shit! Missiles! Jive, Betjet. Break, break, break!" Kei called out to the other two, as she acted quickly and snapped her stick over to the left. Pulling her F-5E into a tight turn, diving towards the ocean as three missiles streaked clean through the air where the three had been occupying just moments earlier. She spared glance to look over at her friend and follow pilot. Both of them looked to be fine as each of them came out of their turn. However, seconds later, Kei's cockpit was filled with the blaring alarm of yet another missile lock on to her plane. She quickly threw her head around and looked towards the aggressor, her eyes widening in horror. The enemy were flying Mig-29 Fulcrums, and one of them was sitting right there on Kei's six o'clock. Perfectly set up to slam a heat seeking missile right up her tailpipe. Kei's eyes widened greatly, as the world seemed to slow down dramatically. Kei watched on as a missile dropped off one of the Fulcrum's wings, slowly starting to spin, before it's rocket booster ignited in a puff of smoke and fire. Kei was already moving on instinct as she watched the missile begin to fly towards her. She slammed the rudder towards the right and threw the stick off to the right and back into her gut. The world flipped the plane over, pulling into a gut wrenching barrel roll of to the right, and dove aggressively towards the water once more, pumping out flares and chaff to throw off the missile's tracking system. The tight turn and sudden change of the F-5E's flight path, combine with the chaff, threw off the lock as the missile then began to harmlessly fly off. Kei stuck with her tight turn and pulled her plane all the around just hoping to have winded up the other fighter's tail… only to be met with the sight of empty air. She sucked in a breath as she looked all around for the lost Fulcrum. A bright glimmer of metal shined itself into her eye as she looked off to her right, and she turned her attention to it and looked in closer. She quickly recognized that the glimmer was Alex and let out a low sigh of relief, seeing that on her childhood friends was alright.

For only the course of about two seconds, as a bright flash of light off towards Alex's 7 o'clock caught Kei's eye. Twisting her head, she noticed that another enemy Mig, or perhaps the same that was Kei's tail mere moments ago, she could not tell, had dropped in and fired off a missile at Alex. Kei quickly got onto the radio, as she pulled her nimble F-5E into a left turn moving towards Alex's plane.

"Jive, Edge! You got a Mig sitting right there on your six! Break left! I'm coming to you." Alex didn't verbally respond but clicked her mic twice to tell Kei, that she acknowledged and snapped her plane off to the left pumping out chaff to help throw off the missile's onboard guidance systems. It worked as the missile stopped tracking after Alex and shot itself off into the distance, flying off through the chaff and headed towards nowhere. The Fulcrum followed her into the turn, lining up for another shot onto Alex's plane, with Kei following him, lining herself up for a good missile shot on the enemy pilot as well. Alex quickly reversed her turn trying to lose the trailing Mig, but the turn didn't manage to throw the guy off her tail seeing as how he had managed to stick with her in the turn. The Mig pitched up and twisted itself into a barrel roll, pulling enough lead on Alex's plane to squeeze off a burst. Alex reacted instantly by throwing her plane into underhanded High-G roll, rolling her underneath the Fulcrum. However the Mig-29 pitched up once again and cut it's throttle, killing it's momentum and allowing the pilot to spin around quickly and dive right back down onto Alex's tail.

"Edge, where the hell are you? I don't think, that I can keep dancing with this guy for much longer," Alex called out to Kei, panic and stress clear in her voice.

"Just calm down, Jive. I'm lining up my shot on the guy, be there in 20 seconds. Not to mention that it would help, if you stopped driving your damn plane like your grandmother drives her car," Kei sarcastically remarked to her as she applied more throttle, desperately trying the coax some more airspeed out of her F-5, as she made her way over towards the ensuing, dangerous dance.

"Copy that, Edge. I'll try to keep him busy until you get here. Jeez, he didn't even buy me dinner, oh, and don't think that I didn't hear that jab at my grandma," Alex muttered out. Kei smiled a bit despite the situation, Alex had the same of joking personality that Chopper had, though hers was a lot more toned down than his was.

"Heartbreak One, Heartbreak One, this Edge. We have encountered the contacts at Angels 6. I repeat, have contact at Angels 6. Looks like it's a squadron of Mig-29 Fulcrums. Requesting immediate, assistance and intercept, over," Kei didn't pay attention to Bartlett's response as she turned said attention back onto the deadly dance that Alex was having with the Mig. Alex had managed to get the faster Fulcrum into a turn fight with her slower, more maneuverable Tiger, initiating a sort of Horizontal Scissors. Giving Kei a chance to sprint her way up the deformed Horizontal Scissors. She took it, as she throttled up and tried to slip in behind the Fulcrum driver.

Alex reversed her turn yet again to try and throw off the Mig and it's encroaching 30mm cannon, the Mig pilot firing as they came out their own turn. Kei, tried to maneuver herself around to get a clear Sidewinder missile shot. The Mig driver quickly realized what was happening though, and pitched his nose, foiling Kei's shot. She reacted almost instantly, snapping the stick up in her gut and pulling the plane into a steep climb. She rolled the plane over onto its back, frantically looking for a sign the Mig as she pulled back more a leveled the plane out. Then a large explosion sounded out from behind Kei's fighter, who quickly got onto the radio, trying to find out what happened as her eyes stayed focused on the sky search for the lost Mig. "Betjet, you still alive back there?!" she called out to Adam seeing if he was still alive since Kei had lost sight of him after she had dived in to help Alex.

Kei caught sight of the Mig which latched back onto Alex yet again. As she was diving in to interfer, Adam finally responded. "Yeah, I'm still here Nagase," his voice nearly a whisper.

"What the heck, was that?" she asked, still keeping her attention focused on the Mig that was still chasing Alex. Clearly not noticing Adam's quiet tone either, as she floored the throttle, quickly gaining both speed and ground on the twisting pair.

"That was Barney's plane going up, he didn't get out."

"Copy that, Betjet," she said quietly, Kei didn't really talk to 'Barney' much after the rookies had made their way down to Sand Island and didn't know much about the kid, but as far as Kei could tell he had been a pretty okay kind of guy. But, it was still saddening to hear that someone so young had died, Barney, he is… was only 18 years old, way to to young to be killed off in a stupid skirmish. Heck he probably left a girlfriend back at home to go flying. Maybe even take her out for a flight or two. Now he's going home in a casket filled with pictures and memorabilia, not even his own damn body.

Kei shook herself from her wild thinking, as she refocused her attention onto the Fulcrum that was still on Alex's tail and showed no sign of breaking off as it follow her into yet another reversal. "Mustang, you got a bogey moving in on your six!" she heard another nugget, William 'Aero' Foxx, called out to his wingman, one Paul 'Mustang' O'Brian. Kei's attention snapped from the twisting Fulcrum in front of her and quickly spied O'Brian's plane turning just above her own. Another Mig-29 was sitting just a few thousand feet behind him, and with a clear shot at O'Brian. The Mig firing off a missile, seconds later the smoke trail materializing, absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful in it's flight and yet absolutely terrifying at the same moment.

"Copy that, I see him," O'Brian called out in response, mere seconds before the Fulcrum fired off a missile at him. Kei could tell that O'Brian had seen the missile and tried to roll the plane over, popping of flares as the plane flipped itself over, it didn't work though. "Crap, missile! Miss-AHHHHH!" O'Brian started calling out in fear before a burst of static erupted on the radio, cutting him off. She watched, mute with shock, as the missile slammed into the Tiger, the plane disappearing in a flash of flame and fire.

"Mustang! Mayday, mayday, this is Wardog 1-3! Mustang is down, repeat..." Kei ignored Foxx's desperate radio call for an SAR chopper to come in and search for Ben, even though it was doubtful that anyone could have survived that. The missile hit one of O'Brian's own Sidewinders on the wing, in a one-in-a-million shot, and ignited the live warhead. The explosion, coupling itself the impacting missile itself, sparked up the very volatile and flammable aviation fuel in the plane's fuel tanks. Creating a violent reaction that only taken maybe two seconds to go through, and had completely disintegrated the small F-5E and more than likely killed O'Brian, as he literally had no time to get out of the doomed fighter.

Kei's attention snapped back to the Fulcrum as it broke to the left, trying to get a good angle on Alex's fighter, which had been pulled into a yet another tight right-hand turn. Kei immediately reacted with her throwing the stick back into her stomach, opening up the throttle to maintain airspeed as the nose of the Tiger pitched up into a steep climb. Kei's neck straining as she looked towards where Alex had turned off, and was relieved to see that both were still flying flying on the same relative course. She ruddered off to the right and rolled the plane over at the same time, cutting inside the two's turn, giving her a near perfect shot at the trailing Mig. Only for Alex to snap the plane back to the left, spoiling the Mig attempt getting an angle on her and ruining Kei's chance at knocking out the Fulcrum, or at least off of Alex's tail. She quietly cursed, as she follow the other plane into a sharp left turn. Once again trying to pull lead on the other fighter. No matter what Kei tried though, she just couldn't get an angle on the Mig. She breathed a heated sigh of frustration and annoyance as she pulled off of the Mig and went high, looking for an opening. She watched for seemed to be several minutes but had in fact been a handful of seconds.

"Jive. break left, on my mark," Kei called out. Alex clicked her mike twice to show that she understood. Kei stayed high, watching as Alex and the following Mig twist around down below. Waiting for a chance to jump on the Fulcrum, then she saw it. The Mig jock had swung out a little wide when he tried to follow one of Alex's quick snap turns.

"Mark!" Kei barked out to Alex, as she winged herself over diving in to re-engage to the fight. Kei slid back in behind the Mig-29 in a better position than she had been last time. No sooner than Kei slide back in behind the Fulcrum, Alex immediately resumed her dizzying and twisting maneuvers. Somehow, Kei managed to keep her attention on the twisting Fulcrum in front of her and was easily keeping pace with even though she was in a slower moving plane. When she heard one of the other nuggets start calling out frantically.

"This is Wardog 3-3. Svenson's down, repeat Svenson's down! He's gone!" Kei cursed mentally at that. Svenson was one of the instructors and most senior pilots in the sky. If he had been shot down, then the others chances of survival dwindled down even more, with just two trained and experienced pilots, Bartlett and Baker, left in the air right now. Although, Kei, also technically counted in that category as well given that she was experience from her training with Martha and James, and from her time in the 501st all those years ago.

Kei shook herself from her thoughts though as she turned her attention back to the Mig-29 that was still in a tight left turn, trying get his nose around and ahead of Alex's plane. Kei stuck with the Fulcrum in the turn for a few more seconds before Kei realized that it just wasn't going to work and levelled herself out before pitching into a climb. She stopped climbing seconds later and looked back down at the fight. The two plane's, Alex was still leading the Fulcrum into a left turn, but the Mig's angle on Alex had increased and the Mig's nose pointing straight onto Alex's fighter and slowly gaining lead. Kei instantly recognized the danger and called it out to Alex, "Jive, he's going to fire soon! Jink right! Jink right!"

Alex's plane immediately jerked off to the right as she yanked her stick to the right, moving out of the way just as a trail of tracers passed right through where her F-5 had been just mere moments earlier and causing the Mig to overshoot Alex. Kei say her chance and dove in on the fighter.

The Mig driver pulled back on their stick, sending the plane into a shallow climb as he, or she, tried to disengage and extend away from the fight. Giving Kei a clear shot at the Mig in process, and she took it, squeezing off a second long burst from her guns. Releasing a short spray of about fifty 20mm cannon rounds, that was more than enough to do the job though as it walked across the plane's wing and punching holes in it as the trail end of the burst slammed into one of the Mig's air in-tanks for it's engines. Debris flowing through the rest of the engine, screwing up the turbines and the engine itself. The Fulcrum peeled off of Alex and headed home, dark black smoke trailing one of it's engines as it tried to climb away.

"Alright Jive, your clear," Kei told her friend as she pulled off to the left, pumping out chaff hoping to throw off any sort of missile lock that was on her. As Alex stayed in her right turn, pulling herself around and getting back into the fight.

"Thanks Edge, I was starting to run out of tricks," Alex breathed out, clearly glad that she had managed to get out of that situation. Kei just nodded her head in response and flipped her attention towards the skies again as she turned, and quickly spied another one of the Wardog trainees' F-5Es. Mark 'Cavalier' Johansson. Another one that Kei had been on decently friendly terms with at Heierlarck during flight school and training. Though, Kei felt that something was off and her eyes caught a glimmer off towards Mark's right, Kei looked in closer at it and realized another Mig had been sitting right behind Mark. And in the the perfect position to launch a radar guided missile at him. Kei was about call out Mark's attention to it, but before she could the plane launched missile off. Kei immediately switched on her mike.

"Cavalier, you got a missile coming at you. Dive, dive!" she called out, as she watched the missile flying straight towards Mark. He had been well into a tight right hand turn trying to get onto another one of the Mig's tail, when the missile had been fired at him.

"Whoa!" Mark called out as he slammed his rudder to the right and diving the Tiger, mere moments before the missile could slam into his fighter. The sudden movement of the plane had thrown the missile's tracking system off and over loaded with course corrections, causing it to pass harmlessly over Mark's F-5. "Thank's Edge, guess I owe you one," he thanked her, causing Kei crack a small smile as she kept her attention on the sky around her.

"Roger that, Cavalier. You can pay me back by buying me a drink once we get out of this mess," she told him as she watched him level his plane out just off her nose, leveling out her plane herself.

"Hahaha, roger that, Edge. I think I'll take- _holy shit!_ " he shouted out as a Mig-29 came screaming in right at him, diving in from up high, it's cannon blazing. She watched on in horror as a steady stream of tracers and cannon rounds slammed into Mark's plane, causing it to rock as each of the heavy, hard hitting 30 millimeter cannon rounds slammed into his jet.

"Cavalier? Cavalier, you copy? Mark?! Mark, are you alright?!" Kei called out trying to get an answer from the pilot.

"H-h-hey K-Kei, it l-looks like I-I'm not g-going… t-to get… g-get… that… drink… tonight," Mark finished off with a weak whisper as he quietly let his last let out his last breath and left the world. The, now pilotless, F-5 rolled over on it's wing and started it's descent into the water. Slowly twisting and around as it plummeted towards the ocean below.

"Mark! You'll pay for that you son of a bitch!" Julianne 'Star' Kendricks, screamed out as she floored her throttle to full, lighting up the planes afterburner and charging straight towards the Mig the had just shot down Mark.

"No, Star! Don't be stupid!" Kei called out, desperate to gain the other pilot's attention and appeal to her reasoning, before she had gotten herself killed. Kei watched on, fixed in horror as she watched Kendricks' plane shoot towards the now turning enemy fighter. Its pilot still not listening to Kei, as she frantically calling for her trying to get her to turn back and disengage. She watched on in great apprehension as Kendricks' charged straight at the Mig that had killed Mark, cannons blazing. The plane tried around her undirected burst of cannon rounds, but was struck by several of them slammed into the Mig's tail. The rounds sparking off a trail of fire and causing one of the plane's engines to catch fire and igniting the entire tail. The Mig pitched itself up, still brightly burning, and Kendricks broke off. The Fulcrum broke apart as it climbed skyward.

"Alright, good kill, Star. Now get your ass back here!" Kei called out to her fellow pilot.

"Roger that, I'm on my way," Kendricks replied as she pulled her plane around and headed back towards Kei. The two closing on each other rapidly. Kei let out a sigh of relief… just as she saw another Fulcrum climbing up behind Kendricks.

Kei didn't get enough time to warn her as the Fulcrum's left wing root lit up as it's single barrelled. GSh-301 autocannon fired away. The hard hitting 30mm rounds practically shattering the plane itself, Kei also saw the back of the plane's canopy shatter and Kendricks jerk forward violently. The Fulcrum stopped firing and pulled off, leaving Kendricks' shattered F-5E alone as it turned away. Kei was still staring wide eyed and of into nowhere as the two planes passed by each, the woosh of them passing by, snapping Kei back into focus. She threw the stick over far to the left, twisting the plane around as she accelerated to Kendricks. Matching speed with her, as soon as Kei had caught up with the destroyed F-5E.

Kei took a chance to look over the plane. It was wrecked, huge holes perforated the wings and the main fuselage. Fuel, oil and other fluids were leaking from the plane, and the canopy was a complete disaster. Though they were not what had worried Kei the most, Kendricks was slumped over her control stick, unmoving. Kei turned her eyes away from the sight, stinging with unfallen tears, then she saw something twitch off to her right, Kei's head snapped over to look at the plane that was still floating beside her. As she searched the F-5E's destroyed cockpit, she saw Kendricks' arm twitch, ever so slightly but it had twitched nonetheless.

Kei heart leapt up and into her throat as she scrambled for the radio. Once, she finally grasped the transmitter, she hit the button on it and started to try to get through to Kendricks. "Star, Star are you there?! Kendricks, can you hear me?!"

Kei nearly screamed out in joy as she saw Kendricks slowly tilt back up. "Yeah, Edge… I can hear you," Kendricks answered, weakly.

Kei almost immediately went back to business and asked Kendricks to give a report. "Well, it's not good… that Mig knocked out my number 2 engine… and number 1's losing power… I'm losing thrust. The wings took one hell of a beating," she answered, her voice quiet and shaky as if she were struggling to get them out. "Also… I took a round, straight through my left shoulder…it's pretty bad… Jesus, that's a lot of blood."

The other pilot mentally cursed at that, she knew that there was no way in hell that Kendricks was going to be able to make her way back. She would either pass out from the blood loss, or her plane would lose thrust completely and fall do and into the ocean. Not mention, that even if she even made it back to Sand Island, Kendricks was in and would be in no feasible condition to land the plane of the runway. With that being told Kei made her choice. "Star, you still with me girl?"

"Yeah… I'm still here Edge… What's up?" Kendricks asked hoarsely, sounding worse than she had mere moments earlier.

"Star, I want you to punch out. Okay? You'll have a better chance in the water waiting for the rescue helicopters to come in and pick you up, than trying to make a landing at Sand Island. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, I got you… Punch out and wait for the helos to come and pluck me out, I got it…" Kendricks let out a short grunt of pain as she shifted herself around, before calling out, "This is Wardog 3-2, punching out." The remnants of Kendricks' canopy popped off and seconds later a bright flash of light flared up as the F-5Es ejection seat fired off. It's chute deploying moments later as the seat and plane fell down into the ocean.

As soon as Kei saw Kendricks' chute deploy she snapped her Tiger off and circled back towards the twisting and turning dogfight, searching for another target and looking around for her wingmen. But, caught sight of another F-5E being pursued by two more Mig 29s, one of the two fighters fired a missile, the F-5 pilot twisted the plane into a barrel roll, pumping out chaff as he did. It worked as the missile lost its tracking and flew off. However, the second plane fired off a missile as the pilot came out his roll, the thing flew up to the F-5 exploded mere inches off of it's tail. Rocking the plane as it was hit, smoke trailing out from one of the engines. "This is Aero, I'm hit!" Michael, she realized, called out. "Engines losing power and my hydraulics are shot! No chance of recovery! I say again, no chance of recovery! Punching out!" Kei watched his F-5, patiently waiting for him to get clear of his Tiger. Three seconds passed by… then four… then seven seconds had passed, still nothing. Kei realized what was happening, Michael's ejection seat was not firing.

"Damn it, my seat's not firing!" he called out frantically seconds later, suddenly an alarm started blaring off in the background. "Oh God, he fired another missile! I'm not going to make it! Ahhhhhhh-!" the scream was cut off by a flash of light, as yet a third missile fired from the first Mig slammed into the Tiger. And just like that another rookie fell to the Fulcrums. In the span of barely even 10 minutes, one instructor and five nuggets had been shot down. Four of the five dead and the last one seriously wounded in the water. Kei put her head back into the game as she dodged and weaved her way around the other planes trying to avoid being shot down. The remainder of Wardog flight doing the same, their luck holding out as they all did the same. But luck eventually runs out, and when it does it usually never ends out well for the person on the receiving end.

"Crap, this Wardog 1-2, I'm hit," Walter 'Nemo' Miller, called out calmly as alarms were ringing off in the background, Kei's attention snapped to Miller's smoke and flames billowing out from his engines. "They knocked out my engines. Punching out." The frequency filling up with the low sound of the canopy popping of the plane and the loud roar of the ejection seat's thrusters and shotgun shells firing off. She watched as Miller separated from his seat and silk trailed out from behind him, the parachute filling out at catching his fall. Kei reported that Miller had good chute mere seconds before a blur shot past Kei's plane, sounding as if freight train had run right past her, the turbulence rocking the small F-5E as the unknown plane raced past.

She twisted her head back around to take a look at the plane that had just roared past her, and saw the Mig that had shotten down Kendricks, a pair of bright white stripes running down the wings contrasting greatly with brown and green camouflage, passing low underneath her from left to right. She immediately reacted and winged her plane over to get on it's tail. Kei quickly closed in on the Fulcrum trying to make her way at a quick gun pass on the enemy fighter. The damn pilot saw her though as she started to back her dive, and quickly broke off to the left as Kei made a pass at her. Kei saw this, and reacted quickly by going HOTAS, slowing the plane done rapidly as she followed the Fulcrum through it's turn. And coming out on it six o'clock, to far away for guns and quickly she quickly switched over to her two AIM-9 Sidewinders.

The target reticle switched over as the missile's heat-seeking warhead locked in on the glowing tailpipe of the Mig sitting dead ahead, her helmet suddenly growled to life with the sound of a good tone. Kei's finger hovered over the trigger as the Mig in front of was sitting there rocking back and forth, her missile still locked on to it. Then, she felt the hairs of the back of her neck stand up for barely a second before she threw the stick left once more and slammed her foot petals of to the left as a stream of cannon rounds arced their way across her plane, followed closely by the Mig that had fired them. While this happened Kei had lost track of the Fulcrum that she had been chasing and quickly rolled the plane over and pulled up, setting herself up on the plane that had just made a pass at her. The stupid idiot had kept on his same course after he had come out out out of his diving pass on her, but she didn't care as she poured on the throttle and sped back up. The idiot finally clued in that someone was behind him after Kei managed to get a lock on him. He pitched up sharply and off to the left desperate to try and throw her off. Though she was easily fooled as she cranked her plane off to the left as he dove back down to the water, thinking that Kei had followed him up into the climb. The Fulcrum levelled out and stayed moving in a near perfect straight line.

Kei throttled up and closed in quickly not activating her search radar at all yet, allowing her inch in closer and closer to the naive fighter jock. As soon as she got in close enough to see the bright orange plumes of exhaust from his engine's, she flipped on her search radar. The warhead looking onto the Mig's infrared equivalent of a volcano, Kei's finger closed around the trigger. "I got you now, you stupid son-of-a-bitch," she muttered darkly as she pulled the trigger, the Sidewinder lept off of the rail almost eagerly, it's rocket booster touching off a burst of fire and smoke. The missile tracking straight and true, heading up and through the Fulcrum tail section. Blowing it apart in a massive explosion. Kei pitched her plane up and went above the huge fireball and cloud of debris that she was about to slam into. She watched with grim satisfaction and slight pleasure as the remaining half of her adversary twisted and burned as he fell into the ocean.

Kei's eyes stayed on the spot where her adversary had crashed in the surf. A small spot of flame sitting on the water, she was seemingly mesmerized by the sight. Before a burst of cannon tracers raced above her head. Kei instinctively pulled back on the throttle and slammed the rudder to the left, causing the Mig to overshoot and fly clear across Kei's canopy as she passed underneath him.

"Jive! Betjet! Form up on me, they're picking us apart. So, we need to stick together," Kei called out to her two wingmen. Who both quickly responded and formed up on her six. The three of them, spent the next seven minutes dodging missiles and streams of cannon rounds as they tried to stay alive, covering each other as they went around, surviving. After a long while, a loud pair of whistling sounds made itself known from behind the group of three, as the air-to-air missile alarm simultaneously blared to life. Kei acted on her own pure battle instinct, formed from her earlier years of fighting the neuroi, pulling the stick sharply into her gut and pitching the plane up into a steep climb. Then the sound of an explosion from behind, brought Kei back to the present as she rolled plane over and saw something that horrified her. Both Alex and Adam, didn't manage to avoid the missiles and were hit. Alex's plane immediately went into a flat spin, while Adam's plane peeled off after he managed to recover his plane, trailing smoke as he flew off.

"Jive!" Kei exclaimed as she watched her friends planes were hit and dove down, chasing after Alex. Her left engine trailing smoke as the plane was corkscrewing itself down towards the ocean.

"Shit, shit, shit! This is bad, the missile screwed up one of my engines! I'm in a flat, fucking spin!" Alex screamed out as she frantically tried to recover her fighter. Kei looked at Alex's slowly spinning F-5E, the missile did a lot more than just screw up her engine, it made the wing look like a piece swiss-cheese. To make matters, worse however the the plane's spin from Kei's perspective.

"Jive, can you get her to nose down? Try to recover that way," she said trying to help Alex.

"I can try," Kei saw Alex try to move to plane trying anything to get the plane's nose pointed down towards the water, but nothing was working. "No, no, no, no! God-damn it! My control systems are all fried and the hydraulics are shot! I can't recover her," Alex called out, frustration clear in, "Jive, punching out! See you guys groundside." Seconds later the ruined F-5E's, somehow still pristine, canopy's explosive bolts fired off and blowing the large piece of glass far clear from the plane, seconds before ejection seat fired off it's shotgun rounds and severing the seat's connections to the plane. Moments before firing it's jets and rocketing Alex out of the plane and into the air. After a few seconds of freefall, Alex separated herself from the ejection seat and pulled out her chute. The white silk filling out as the wind rushed through it, catching the air and ceasing Alex's plummet towards the roaring waves hundreds of feet below her.

"Edge, it's Betjet. I need you to get up here and check me out. The plane feels like it's alright, other than the fact that the controls are a little sluggish," he request as he struggled to keep his Tiger up in the air. Kei immediately acknowledge the request and pulled up out of her dive, quickly identifying Betjet's damaged plane that had been, still, trailing smoke. As Kei pulled up to the damaged plane she noticed a small flicker of light down on the bottom of Adam's plane. She moved in closer a large flash of light blinded for a second as a massive fire erupted.

"Adam, punch out! Punch out! There's a huge damn fire on you, it's going to to hit the fuel tanks, any second!" Kei called out the him, frantic.

"Fuck. Copy that, Edge. See you on the grou-" Adam was cut off as the fires reached said tanks, and his plane lit up a burst of as it exploded right in front of Kei. The young pilot watching on, helpless and in horror as Adam's plane fell to the cold water below in a heap of twisted heap of metal and fire. A flaming pyre and a watery grave, for one of her friends. Kei faintly heard someone's voice screaming out in pain and anger, a voice that she would come to realize later, was her own.

"This is Heartbreak One. Is anyone still alive, there?" Bartlett called out, wondering if any of the other rookies had made it out.

"Bartlett, it's Baker. I'm alright, sort of. One of those Mig's strafed me with his gun, before he bugged out. Must have hit to generator. Electronics are a little on the fritz, I think I can make it back though," the last of the two instructors reported to the captain.

Kei reached over to the mic and flipped to transmit, "This is Edge, I'm okay. No damage. Jive and Betjet went down, Jive got out. Betjet… Betjet, didn't," she responded in a near dead monotone that she did even realize that she was speaking with. Kei was numb with the shock of seeing eight pilots just… murdered. After all the flight never had a chance, hell, the only reason Kei survived was due to the fact that she had both previous experience in battle with her history as a witch and training with the infamous Galm team while she was growing up. That Kei was numb as she maneuvered her plane up to form up on Bartlett's wing, glancing of towards their right to see Baker's jet flying off their left trailing a path of thin smoke from his engines. Kei tuned herself out for the rest of the flight back, numbly pulling course corrections to stay heading back for Sand Island. Kei started to tune herself back in when she heard Baker starting to request landing clearance.

Kei queued up her own mic, "Tower, this is Wardog 2-2. Requesting landing clearance."

"Copy that Wardog 2-2. Cleared for approach on runway, approximately half-mile after Wardog 2-1," the controller replied almost instantaneously.

"Roger tower, clear for approach, half-mile after Wardog 2-1," Kei responded in a near dead monotone voice.

Kei winged in close half a mile behind Baker's smoking F-5E, as the two of them came in for a landing. It seemed to be going pretty well, until Baker's plane shuddered violently and started to drift down towards the ground. Losing speed rapidly.

"Shit! This is Baker, I've lost power. Fuck, I'm losing thrust! I'm going in! I'm going in!" he called out frantically into the radio, alarms blaring off the background. Kei's eyes snapped over to the Tiger, and watched on as the plane stalled out and rolled itself over and slammed into ground flat on top of it's back, a few mere meters short of the runway. A ball of flame and inky, black smoke erupting from the crash as it's fuel tanks ignited. Kei just let a low sigh as she saw the flaming wreckage as she came in on her own final approach. _Just another good pilot that's going home in a casket. If there's anything left in there that is after that fire's done,_ Kei thought morbidly as she glided her plane down onto the ground, the wheels bouncing along the pavement slightly as she rolled the plane to a stop along the runway. The still burning wreck of Baker's plane sitting behind her, she taxied off of the runway and parked the fighter. After she shut down the twin General Electric J85-GE-21B engines, Kei snapped off her mask and sagged in her seat slightly as she relaxed her sore body from the seemingly long, grueling dogfight and leaned her head against the back of the ejection seat. Kei closed her eyes for a moment and just listened to the ever slowing whine of the engine's turbines and the electronics. A loud wrapping on the windshield woke her up from her short rest, a mechanic was sitting up on the top of the ladder, patiently waiting for her to get out. The mechanic gestured for her to get out of the plane.

Kei nodded her head in response and moved her up towards the harness, unbuckling it and sliding it off her shoulders. She popped the canopy open, slowly letting the canopy rise up as she too rose up from seat, she heard the rotor chop from the pair of HH-9 Helicopters flying out for SAR. She watched the two chopper's fly off towards Cape Landers, in a desperate race to find any survivors from today. Kei slowly lowered herself down to the ladder from the cockpit of her plane. Her arms were quivering slightly from the long 12 minute dogfight and maneuvering her plane near constantly. The ground feeling comforting as her feet touched the tarmac.

"Nagase! You keep on flying like that and you'll die real soon!" Bartlett shouted out at her.

Kei looked up at the man for a second before turning her head away, "I won't die, sir," she muttered out she looked down.

Bartlett just started at her for a second "Are you sure?" he asked before turning around, exasperatedly, muttering, "You look like you couldn't hurt a fly," as he stormed off to the control tower to meet with the Colonel. The man that had been walking alongside Bartlett though looked at Kei, Genette, if she remembered correctly, turned around and pulled up his camera. She staggered slightly and turned slightly to face him, barely managing a smile as he took a picture. Kei turned around as she heard a commotion behind her. Her eyes, widening a little bit in surprise as she saw Helen and Chopper sprinting their way towards her. _Oh god, Helen. I… I got Alex shot down. I should have never been the one to lead them. After all everyone I lead gets hurt; Alex, Adam, Lynnette… hell even myself,_ she thought morbidly as she quickly turned away and briskly made her way towards the locker rooms. Desperate, to try and avoid her friends at the moment. If she had turned around she would have noticed the confused and worried expressions that were written on her friends faces.

* * *

The SAR choppers had come back with little success. Kendricks had been found alive in the water but had died from a combination of Hypothermia and massive blood loss during the flight back. Walter's parachute wrapped around his legs, dragged him down like an anchor. The poor bastard drowned before the chopper had managed to get to him. Alex, she almost bought it too. If the helo hadn't gotten there when it did, she would have died from hypothermia like Kendricks had.

Kei inhaled sharply before she twisted down the doorknob and headed on through the threshold of the door. As soon as she walked in, Kei took a quick glance around the break room and noticed that Chopper and Alex were sitting right next to one another. Alex was talking with Chopper about to say something but stopped and looked up towards Kei who quickly turned her eyes away and took a seat up near the front of the room. After Kei sat down she took a look around the room and noticed the Bartlett had been sitting down in a chair up near the wall, his head thrown back clear over the back of the chair. A few more pilots the Kei didn't recognize walked in through the door and quickly found their seats and promptly took them. Bartlett let a low, deep sigh that spoke of a tired, weariness that reminded Kei of Martha and James when the talked about the Belkan War. He made a short glance around the room, looking at the remaining pilots before he started to talk, "Look, I know you don't like this, but we're short on people. Starting tomorrow, all of you nuggets, not including Marcum, are gonna be sittin' alert." Kei sunk a little bit at that notion, but it had made sense after all nine pilots were killed today, that was at least one-half, if not two-thirds of Sand Island's air group. "If we launch, stay glued to me up there," Bartlett continued to the others, before shooting his attention over towards Kei, "Nagase!"

Kei eyes widened a bit as she straightened up a little bit more in her seat, "Sir."

"You're flying Number Two on my wing. Gotta an eye on you, or who knows what you'll get yourself into." Kei didn't bother to either send a retort or answer as she knew it would have been pointless, and that the Bartlett had already known what the answer would be. After all, it was a direct order technically. Although, she could see through his words, Bartlett did want to keep an eye on her just not for her flying. He want to keep an eye on her mental state, Kei internally scoffed at that. She was rattled, maybe even changed a little bit by the whole ordeal, that much she'll admit, but it was not enough to reach the point to where she would go suicidal or AWOL or anything like that.

"Alright now go to your rooms, and get some rest. That's an order," Bartlett finished as he stood up out of chair and walked out of the room. All of the other pilots stood up out of their seats and started to follow the gruff man out. Kei, just stayed sitting in the her seat for a few seconds though kind of staring off and not really registering what was going on around her. Helen noticed it as she was walking over towards the door, and shifted her direction towards Kei. Said person was seemingly stuck deep in thought and obviously not paying attention, seeing as how she jumped slightly when Helen placed her hand on Kei's shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright there, Kei?" Helen asked as she studied Kei's face for a second over two as she waited for her friend to respond. Kei, just nodded her head for a second before answering.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," she said as she brushed off Helen's hand. Helen didn't seem all to pleased with her answer though as she just stared back at Kei with unbelieving eyes. Kei sighed, of course Helen wouldn't believe her, after all they had been close friends since they were in high school. Hell, both her and Alex counted her as another sister.

"Look, Helen," Kei started out softly, "I am fine okay. Really, I am. You, on the other hand need to go check up on Alex. I know that you haven't seen her since the SAR chopper landed." That seemed to get Helen's attention as she turned away from Kei's gaze, confirming Kei's statement. "Take Chopper with you, I'll there later," Kei added.

Helen's head snapped back to look at her. "What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.

Kei stared at her calmly and rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Jeez, I'm not going to kill myself, if that's what you're thinking. I'm not that depressed, damn it. I'm just going to call my family back at home."

Helen sheepishly turned her head away from Kei's piercing gaze, and nodded her head as she turned around and started to walk off through the still open doorway. Helen turned back and poked her head in one last time and was about to say something else but thought better of it and head back out to go and find Chopper.

Kei sighed once again and slouched down in the chair for a moment gathering up her thoughts for second as stared up at ceiling, much as Bartlett had a mere ten minutes earlier. Kei closed her eyes as she stared up at the roof. She heaved herself out of the chair and headed out the door and down the hallway, hands stuffed casually in her pants pockets. Her head hanging low as she stared at the cream colored tile floor.

 _Just what the hell am I going to talk with them about though. Because I am pretty sure that I can't talk about the massive cluster fuck that we had. After all, the bigwigs confiscated Genette's camera just for taking a stupid picture. Maybe…_ Kei thought to herself as she walked, not really thinking about where she was walking, just letting her feet take her wherever they had wanted to go. By the time that she had broken out of her thoughts she had realized that she had made her way across the entire base and had reached the base's convenience store. Home to all of the tobacco, cigarettes and snacks on base, not to mention the place to find the only Sat Phone on base that could be used for non-military matters. Like the personal calling their home and families.

Kei walked up to the counter where just a random airman was manning the station, absent-mindedly flipping through the pages of a magazine, the kid couldn't have been at least a year older than Ariana was. Kei waited for the airman to notice her. When he didn't, she cleared her throat loudly to get the kid's attention. It worked as the kid glanced up for a second from his magazine and quickly closed it as he scrambled to place it under the counter, straightening out his uniform. "Yes, hello, Lieutenant. What can I do for you this evening?" he asked quickly.

Kei sighed lowly as she collected her annoyance for a moment, "Sat Phone. I need to contact my family."

The young Airman nodded and moved off towards the back, leaving through the backdoor. Kei glance over the counter and spied the magazine that the airman had been so engrossed with mere moments earlier. The photo of a familiar pair of F-15C Eagles, one with a gray fuselage with dark, almost navy blue trim on the wings followed another gray bodied Eagle with one bright red, right wing. 'Warriors and the Belkan War, by OBC Studios,' it read. Kei scoffed at that, she had already know the story after all they had watched the documentary, not to mention the fact that the were her parents. She leaned over the counter and pulled up the magazine and started to flip through the thing while she waited. Kei chuckled a little as they had kept on calling Cipher a 'he' and thought fondly of how upset that Martha would be about. The backdoor slammed shut as the kid came back, Sat Phone in hand. He started to head back to counter, bur frozen as he saw what Kei was doing.

"You got that damn, Sat Phone yet?" Kei asked irritably, shaking the airman out of his reverie.

"Uh, yeah. I got it right here Lieutenant. So, are you interested in the 'Demon Lord?'" he asked as he moved over towards Kei, as she closed the magazine and set it back down on the counter top.

"No, not really. At least, not anymore," she answered promptly.

That sure as heck surprised the airman as he made a very noticeable double-take. "Why?"

"That is because, I met _her_ ," she said, putting in great emphases on the 'her' portion of that. She grabbed the Sat Phone from the stunned kid and walked out of the room. Leaving the completely flabbergasted and wordless airman behind. She stared at the phone, that sat in her hand for a for a moment, before steeling her nerves and dialed in number, pressing call. The line stayed ringing for a few seconds before the tell tale sound of someone picking up the phone rang out. "Hello, this is the Nagase residence," a familiar, yet extremely annoyed voice, answered, "Ariana Nagase, speaking how may I help you."

"Ari, it's me. It's Kei," she said quietly, her voice coming out as merely a whisper. So low that Kei had barely heard it herself.

Ariana's attitude did a complete 180 after she realized who she was talking to, "Oh, hey, Kei! How are you?!"

"I'm… I'm doing okay," she lied, and it killed a little bit of her inside.

"That's good," Ariana said, "You want to talk to Mom or Dad?" Kei smiled at that and felt her eyes moisten a little, she could always count on Ari to think of others before herself.

"No, no. That's alright, Ari. I just wanted to hear your voice," Kei answered after collecting herself, wiping anyway the tears that had started to wet her cheeks with her free hand, stifling a small cry.

"Okay…" Ariana responded, with a near skeptical tone to her voice. Kei could tell that she was confused by that little bit.

"Anyways, I needed to talk with you about something important. Something, really important," Kei said before Ariana could say anything, her voice shaking a tiny bit before taking on a more serious, stern tone, "If you… if you hear anything, and I mean anything, along the lines of an attack or anything like that. I want you to take Mom and Dad and get out of Osea. Head straight to Melissa's and her family. Okay? You remember her, my old friend that moved to Emmeria about two years ago."

"Uhh, Kei are you alright. You're kinda scaring me here," Ari whimpered out at the end, Kei closed her eyes for a second. She didn't like to do this, she didn't want to do this but… she had to. For Martha, for James, and for Ariana

"Can you promise me that, Ari?" She didn't answer.

"Promise me, Ari," Kei didn't ask this time.

"Kei, I think that-" her sister started to say. Kei wasn't having any of it though.

"Ari! Promise me, damn it!"

"I-I…" Ariana started to retort but it held back with little restraint, as far as Kei could tell, before letting a low sigh of defeat. "I promise," she muttered through the phone in response.

Kei on the other hand let out a quiet sigh of relief, as though a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders, "Thank you, Ari. I'm sorry that I yelled at you, but I had to. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yeah…" she answered, "yeah, I do, but what is this about anyways, Kei? What's going on?"

"You remember seven years ago, I told you that I had bad feeling that something was about to happen. You remember what happened?" she asked.

"Yeah, Erusea attacked and seized the Stonehenge railgun network in Usea a few weeks later, and started the Second Usean Continental War. Dad, went to Usea and volunteered in ISAF, about a month later, why?" Ariana answered with a question on the end.

"That feelings back," Kei replied bluntly, but then hesitated for a few seconds "... and some-… something else happened, Ari. Now I-I-I can't talk about it but it was… it was pretty bad, okay. Listen Ari, if… if anything happens to me. I… I want you, to take care of Mom and Dad for me, okay. Will you do that for me?"

"Yeah, of course I will, Kei. Look, don't worry about them, you just make sure that you get your butt home in one piece. Oaky, Edge?"

Kei smiled at that."Ten-four, Tali," using the 'callsign' that they had made up when they were in flight training with their parents back on the farm in the planes. Ariana always had better luck between the two sisters, while Kei could take any plane and push it the knife's edge of it's performance.

"Hey, stay safe up there. You still have to come home and watch me fly Sirena," Ariana told her sister in a quiet voice, after a few seconds of silence.

"I will, on both of those. And Ari, I love you," Kei finished off as she hung up the phone, her hand drifting on the back of it for a few seconds. Before she let out a low sigh and walked off. Heading back towards her room, not even bothering to wipe the silent tears that had fallen from her eyes. By the time the she had gotten into her room, Kei had broken down into sobs and curled herself into a ball on the couch. Barely even registering the fact the her room-mate had wrapped a blanket around her old friend.

* * *

 **A/N:** I just realized that I have not done a disclaimer yet. So, before I get frakken nailed for it. **I do not own the 'Ace Combat' games or the 'Strike Witches' series.** Hope you guys enjoyed it!


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